As mentioned in Pt. I of “The Calm Before the #NNVStorm”, I haven’t been shooting very much with my Nikon D7000 and it’s been getting me down. Not in a depressed sort of way, more in that “I spent a bunch of money on this thing that isn’t getting as much use as it should be” kind of way.
Recently, an Instagram user I have come to find a deep respect for turned me on to a piece of HDR software for Mac/PC that has pretty much blown my mind titled Photomatix Pro.
Basically, this application allows you to take several (3 preferred) bracketed DSLR shots (0, +2,-2 exposures work EXTREMELY well) and combine / tone map them to HDR perfection within moments. There is an anti-ghosting feature which also seems to work wonders, even if you weren’t shooting on a tripod with a remote control, although this is my preferred setup for HDR styling.
Within the app, you’ll find many preset templates for different HDR styles, all of which are customizable and allow for your own custom presets to be saved and used again in the future. The software also doubles as an Adobe Lightroom plugin, which is another great way to include Photomatix Pro in your everyday workflow.
Using my standard concert photography setup of the AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens attached to the Nikon D7000 body, now coupled with tripod and wireless (ML-L3) remote control for HDR landscape shooting, I embarked on creating some dark and eerie HDR shots of the impending #NNVStorm set to hit our area over the weekend. For the shots comprising this image specifically, I was shooting in shutter priority mode, at 1/25th of a second, with an aperture of f/2.8 and an (auto) ISO range of 800 – 6400.
What you see above is Pt. II of several more forthcoming shots in the series. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have in their creation. Have questions about the process? Drop me a line!
Note: The only difference between this post and my recent Instagram post of this same image was (square) cropping using the iOS app Camera+.
Camera(s) Used:
Lens(es) Used:
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