If you recall, on September 17, I posted this photo (bottom of this article) which I titled Cirque Du Boston. I mentioned that I would explain why I chose to use the HDR technique to photograph the scene. Here is why…
The morning of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk it was pretty hazy and disgusting in Boston. When I looked at where Brian Matiash planned our Photowalk route, the gears started turning. I knew that I would need a lot of post processing to break through the haze in the sky. I really wanted to capture just how grand the Cirque Du Soleil tents looked from across the water, but I knew that the sky would not allow me to do it with a regular exposure.
Here you can see a few of the brackets I captured of the scene. Using the Promote Control I tried a set of brackets with 1 EV intervals, 2 EV intervals and even .3 EV intervals. In the end the best processing came from nine exposures at 1 EV intervals.
My first try at processing the photo was a flop. I decided to convert the photo to Black & White which is a trick that many photographers do to try and salvage a photo (even non HDR photos). I didn’t like how it looked as a Black & White either so I kept going at it. A few months later and many attempts at processing the same scene and I am finally happy with the result.
So that is it. That is why I chose to shoot HDR and you have seen start to finish. Maybe next time I’ll be able to make a video of the entire experience.
Here is the final image which can also be viewed larger on the original Cirque Du Boston post.
Final Processing Notes:
- Photomatix Pro 4 Beta 10
- Photoshop
- Nik Dfine
- Nik Silver Efex Pro
- Nik Color Efex Pro
- OnOne Photo Tools
- Lightroom
If you’re interested in some of the software I use for processing please visit my Gear and Discounts pages.
Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
Scott
PS. For fun I thought I would share this fun screen capture with you. This photo is on the Boston Fan Pier facebook page I added a red circle showing where I was standing when I took the Cirque Du Boston photo. Apparently that photo was also taken 10 days prior to the Worldwide Photowalk.