In the world of HDR imagery, Photomatix is the leading application. However, if you only occasionally need to assemble an HDR sequence, you can save your pennies and use the open source application, qtpfsgui. In this post I’ll show you where to find the application and how to get started using it:

If you are starting out in HDR check out my earlier post to see how to capture your bracketed sequence of images to use for the HDR assembly.

Step 1

Visit http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/download.php and download the appropriate version of qtpfsgui for your system. I’m using a Windows machine so I’ll download version 1.9.3 and I’ll choose the setup.exe version.

If you’re a keen photographer, chances are that you publish some of your photos to Flickr for sharing with friends and family. One of the disadvantages of Lightroom 2 is that it does not come with a built in tool for publishing direct to Flickr although this has been addressed in Lightroom 3 which does offer this ability.

There are, however, tools like Jeffrey Friedl’s Lightroom plug-in that you can use to do the job. Here’s how it works:

Step 1

To download the tool, visit http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/flickr and locate the tool for your version of Lightroom. There are different downloads for Lightroom 1 and Lightroom 2 so get the right one.

Step 2

Download the zip file which, if you are using Lightroom 2 is via a link in the …

The other day, I was using a book template from The Album Cafe. I wanted to change the background colour scheme and didn’t know where to start but thought I’d try something that popped into my head and it worked a treat! So I wanted to share it with you lovely folks. It can work for anything – let me know how you use this method too!

1.} I started with the book page as completed if I wasn’t going to proceed with changing the graphics colours.

2.} Then go to layer > new fill layer > solid colour. No matter the colour it chooses in the beginning, just click ok

3.} In the layers palette, double click the layer colour and …

A Guest post by Dave Ware from Whalebone Photography.

This note is aimed to be a quick discussion on High Dynamic Range and possible future enhancements to improve it.

What is High Dynamic Range?

High Dynamic Range is a digital processing effect used within photography to combine a number of images of differing exposures to create a consistently exposed picture throughout the entire frame. This increases the luminance (amount of light) visible within an image.

Why is it required?

The camera’s limitation of amount of colour and luminance it can record is governed by the sensor’s capability and the dynamic range of the camera’s electronics. For example, the Canon EOS 40D uses a 14 bit analogue to digital converter which digitises the analogue signals received from the sensor. The 14 digital bits allow 16,384 different colours to be recorded within the camera.

Looking a a histogram, the horizontal axis is the level of luminance of an image. The vertical axis represents the amount of the image which contains that level of light. For example, a histogram with a single line at the left hand edge shows that the image is purely black. Likewise, a single line at the right hand edge represents an image which is purely white. The amount of data which may be compressed within the histogram is limited by the dynamic range of the camera. A very low dynamic range results in the horizontal axis limits close together. A high dynamic range places these axis far apart.

Introduction

If you have been anywhere near the photography world in the past couple years, I am sure you have heard of HDR by now as there have been countless tutorials floating around on how to create HDR images using 3 bracketed exposures in programs like Photomatix and Photoshop. However what if you don’t have your tripod or if you are shooting a scene with moving subjects, yet you still want to create an HDR type shot? Well, good news, it is possible.

This tutorial will teach you how correct and produce a single RAW image into an HDR-like masterpiece using only Lightroom! That’s right, Photoshop skills are not even needed for this tutorial.

Image is provided courtesy of Lin and Jirsa Photography.