Mollys Bar is a perfect example of Why I love urban spaces…

This was an intense photo to edit. I worked for a longer period than anticipated during the post-processing. The image became a true work of art. If you visit where I originally posted the HDR, you’ll be able to see the before and after. The link is just below or in the credits!

Visit the London Ontario Photographers Photoblog on Nuwomb

I was shooting HDR brackets backwards. What? I thought to get all the detail, I wanted the last image to almost be complete darkness instead of trying to reveal all the shadows.

Let’s take this site up a notch!

The trip to Vancouver was great and allowed for awesome HDR Photography Opportunities!  Here are 4 HDR Photographs from my travels.  I really love the colours I got out of the marina shots. Hope you like them as well. This HDR image of Vancouver’s Marina and the Skyline in the distance is what got me interested in HDR Photography in the first place.  I saw images like this and became insanely inspired.  It’s amazing how we can see something, be inspired and work towards creating images on our own.  I created this HDR with Photomatix software and it was done with 6 raw images that were bracketed accordingly.  I used Photoshop curves layer adjustments to finalize the photograph. Curves Adjustment layers are something that I totally didn’t understand forever! That was until I found my photo editing pimp – Chromasia aka David Nightengale’s Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials and I won’t ever look back.  I feel that my HDR photoblog has truly benefitted!

What’s happening right now, is that I am trying to get some of the old photographs re-established on this photoblog.  This is a photograph from April when I was in Vancouver! I ended up shooting a bunch of HDR photographs of the new Convention Centre.  I loved the architectural feature on the roof.  There were 2 features.  In this image you can see the wood feature below the roof.   The one you cannot see is the rooftop garden.  My shots in Vancouver were Handheld HDR photos.

Wide shot of this Great store on Dundas Street here in London.  I shot handheld so I relied on Photomatix to get the alignment correct.  Photomatix did my HDR just right as expected.
I really enjoy doing these streetscape shots from a distance.  This style would have really helped me out back when I was in school for architecture.  Who knows if I would even have this appreciation if I had not gone through that school experience.  Either way, I love HDR photography and I love streetscapes.  Go out and play with your city!

I’m thankful for the ability to go out and play with this kind of work. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sometimes I don’t get to work on my images for the length I need.  I was inspired today when I came across these images sitting in my Lightroom Folder for Editing.  I had originally shot 5 brackets but I only wanted to use 4 for the HDR generation because the darkest exposure had no added value that I could see.  I tone mapped the HDR File that photomatix created so nicely for me. It was pretty good but I had this feeling like it wasn’t good enough.  And I wonder if a lot more people do this, but I tone mapped a second time.  I put up a short tutorial on double tone mapping for HDR on Nuwomb Creative – because it’s more than just a photoblog.  So I’m not going to get into it here.  But doing that double tone mapping really kicks ass sometimes.  Not for everything but man.  I then took it into photoshop and worked everything out.  I am very happy with this HDR Photo.

ps. this photoblog is getting  a super sexy makeover next week.  A permanent makeover that I’ve been waiting for – for a long time!

The thing about an HDR Photograph like this one I’ve created, is it that not everyone will like it.  That’s what I think I love.  It’s not for everyone but my eyes light up as I created the image.  The HDR image was created for my variety store project; my collection of variety stores in my city (and the world – one day).  This is in London, Canada.

I know I have shown many pictures of Canada Place in Vancouver already but I love the architecture of it.  I liked the idea of a portrait orientation here because it allowed me to show water and sky, and the architecture breaking the 2 up. HDR photography allowed me to work this out in a way I love.  I always finalize my photographs in Photoshop.  I love it to death and I can’t use a computer without photoshop being installed.  I feel naked without it close by.

More Urban grunge from around my city.  This was taken in a small parking lot by our famous Pizza Place – Tonys.  I had a bit of distortion in this photograph.  I have been making the effort to correct the distortion pointed out by Michael in a comment.  There are some I have done it with and some I have not.  Sometimes, I don’t mind it but really I did not know about or understand until learning about it in Chromasia’s Photoshop Tutorials.

Just to note, I love comments like Michael just left me.  He pointed out a reason my pictures were suffering and he did it in a constructive way.   Thank You Michael!

This is a photograph that is part of my Variety Store or Convenience Store Project.   I know.  You probably think that they are maybe boring.  But I am trying to show that these stores are awesome! I love them.  I can’t get enough of seeing them and collecting them.  I shot this HDR image from across the street and using my 10-20mm Sigma wide angle lens.  I love this lens beyond belief.  I am considering the sale of it thought because I want to get a different lens from Nikon.  We’ll see if or how that goes.   My HDR Photography is usually created from 5 images, like this one.  I use Photomatix pretty much exclusively  but I am open to other HDR software.  If you are interested in a coupon code for Photomatix, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll be glad to share. =]