While I am happy that I made the switch to HDR, I have still been working on getting the colors right and improving my photos.  In this post, I will discuss some things I have learned during the last few weeks.

Lesson 1 Windows do not always need to be the correct temperature

In this shot, I spent a painstaking amount of time replacing the windows in the original shot with ones of the correct temperature.  This arises because the light inside the house is tungsten, while the outside light is closest to cloudy.

In the original shot, the windows were blue.  You can still see this blue on the floors in this shot, which detracts considerably.  One person mentioned that they look like ‘pools in the floor’.  Despite the amount of work, it wasn’t worth it.  The color shift in the windows looks too extreme – especially given the reflections.  This is one case where keeping the original blue of the windows wouldn’t have hurt the original photo.

I went back to this house to retake a number of shots and this is the new one.

I made a number of changes in this shot other than simply keeping the color.  Actually, I shot this at a cloudy white balance compared to tungsten from above.  During the day time, I felt that the strong light from the windows was stronger than the weak tungsten lamps in the room.  This also accentuates the view – which is a big selling point of the house.

Another big change was the use of exposure blending compared to HDR.  In general, I have found that most of the time exposure blending provides better, more natural results.  There are some exceptions – such as very strong windows – where HDR works better.  However, in my last two shoots only one out of the fifteen pictures was HDR.

I also removed the flash that I used in the original shots.  The first time, I added a flash fired by Pocktewizards with a tungsten gel.  I still think the flash idea has promise, but I do think the tungsten gel may have made the shot look a bit too tungsten.  With a different house, I tried not using a gel on the flash but in some respects it was worse.  I then had colors of 2850, 5500, and 6000 in the same shot – which required some Photoshopping to return to an essence of normality.

Lesson 2 Do not shoot at night and if you do, do not use HDR

There are multiple things wrong with this shot, but the halos certainly do not help it.  The orange color is also too strong – as is the blue.  I spent some time working with this shot, and could not get it better than the one here.

The next time, I changed the angle a bit and photographed during the daytime.

I do think dusk shots can be useful for the outside of the house, but there must be something else in the photo besides the actual house that is interesting at dusk.  This may be a driveway with lights going down it or a beautiful entry way.  In this case though, I do not believe viewing the house at dusk helped at all.  The photo above may be more normal and less dramatic, but it also gives a better idea of what the house actually looks like.

Lesson 3 Be very careful with view shots

There are technical issues with this photo, but in truth there are two things far worse.  First, I took this photo of the view from the house with a wide angle lens.  This is the actual view and is not a distortion of the real view.

The first problem is that people still do not believe this.  Without a frame that indicates that the view truly is the one from the house, a number of viewers mentioned that they thought I took it with a telephoto and was not being honest.

Another problem is the power lines.  Power lines are evil and many people (including myself) run far way from any house that has power lines too close to it.  Although these power lines are not close to the house at all, the image makes it look so.

The fix was a significantly different shot, that also used exposure blending compared to the HDR above.

Here, I added a piece of the porch to show that this is truly the view you get.

Lesson 4 – Avoid the ‘Light of Death’

Again, there are multiple things wrong with this shot.  One of the primary things is the huge blinding light in the middle of it – with radial spokes like a small sun.  While this is a rather pretty light, it certainly takes away from the rest of the shot.

Another big issue is the orange cast in the shot.  The colors are simply off.  Finally, the viewpoint is not so great.  On the left, we have a set of flowers trying to creep in and on the right we have what looks to be a miniature kitchen.  I simply tried to get too much into this shot.  Interestingly, this shot did use exposure blending in the first place.

In this shot, I only focused on the dining room and took the kitchen in a separate shot.  The light is still bright, but since I was further away from it, it does not look like a blinding sun.  Also, the light from the windows – since I shot during the daytime – tones it down a bit.

This was also a good case showing that daytime shooting is almost always better than night time.  The nice green from the windows really helps here – compared with the black from the night shots.

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The day after the 5D Mark II was announced, I decided to preorder it.  At first I was very skeptical of the camera, but in the end I decided that a camera with basically the same sensor as the 1Ds Mark III, without the AF and the weather sealing but with video was a good deal at $2700.

After reading on a rumor site that the camera would be released early, I called Buydig to see when my camera would ship.  They confirmed that it was coming soon so I sold my old 5D in October.  Unfortunately, this turned out not to be true so I have had to get by without a camera for the last two months.

Being without a camera for so long and watching as people started unboxing their Mark II’s has left me with the following conclusions.

First, among the high end cameras these days there isn’t a huge difference.  Sure, the Nikon D700 and D3 are great cameras, but for the most part you can take great pictures with any of them.  You may find more keepers when using the Nikon or one of the Canon 1D series when taking sports shots, but in general a photographer can take amazing shots with any of these cameras.

When I started looking at the shots users were taking with the 5D Mark II, it certainly became apparent that it isn’t a huge upgrade to the original 5D.  Some comparison have found that the two cameras have approximately the same noise levels.  The Mark II certainly has an advantage in terms of resolution, but you’ll need a lens that can resolve that resolution.

Therefore, when I do upgrade again someday I will likely wait for the new camera to come out and see the reviews before ordering it.  If the camera appears worth it, I will then sell my existing one.  The main reason I chose to sell my original 5D so early was I wanted to get the best price for it, however since the Mark II has been released prices on the original 5D haven’t fallen much.

The other thing I realized was I need to get out and take pictures more.  The camera does not make the photographer – the photos he/she takes do.  When I receive the new camera, expect to see a lot more pictures posted as I do intend to take far more pictures and experiment more.

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