HDR Sunset - iPhone4 + Photomatrix Pro and ReDynaMix

Lovely sunset last night and this time we managed to get into the right place early enough. I only had the iPhone4 with me and after taking a few shots I discovered I could take slightly different exposures by choosing different places in the photo for the camera to focus. I use the app Camera+ and, as with other photo apps on the iPhone you use the touch screen to tell the app where to focus. What I found was, with something with contrasting areas of light like a sunset, not only does the app focus where it is told but also takes the exposure reading from that area. That gave me the idea of taking three photos with slightly different exposures to use for making an HDR picture.

This is one of the photos as taken by the iPhone:

The other two were slightly darker or lighter.

The idea was to transfer the photos to the PC and use Photomatrix to do the HDR processing. On loading them I had to change the numeric level of one as Photomatrix nagged that it thought two were the same exposure. That gave it a -1, 0 and +1 combination of exposures to work with.

My biggest surprise was Photomatrix Pro 4.1 gave me a set of built in preset thumbnails at the bottom of the screen with different results to choose from. Something I have not seen before with this program:



I chose Enhancer - Painterly and told it to process. The result being:



There must be a way to get back to the thumbnails but I couldn't find it so loaded the three originals again. This time choosing Enhancer - Grunge:



Those results were just as the program set things up and it would have been possible to add a bit of extra individual tweaking.

While in a tweaking mood I loaded the top original iPhone photo in Photoshop Elements 10 and used the ReDynaMix plugin to see how well it could achieve an HDR effect from one picture:



As the saying goes - when it comes to trying to reproduce what the eye sees on subjects like sunsets - yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. The Grunge result I like as an arty picture though it looks nothing like the actual Sunset. Of my efforts the ReDynaMix is the nearest to the real thing though the idea of HDR is to achieve a High Dynamic Range.

There is at least one app for the iPhone which automatically takes HDR photos but the one I tried processes the photo immediately after taking the shots and it was a long wait before any more photos could be taken. With something as fleeting as a sunrise or sunset it was better to be able to take lots of shots and do the processing later.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Several people correctly identified the close view of the Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) in last week's puzzle photo. Congratulations and a    go to Anonymous from Minnesota, Linda, John and Glo; with an extra to Jan's HLH.

   




On to the new puzzle photo. What type of creature has legs like this?
Guess What:


If you need a clue then how about this extract from Sir Walter Scott's Marmion.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!

No prizes, just for fun.

Friday at the Flicks - Nest Box Investigations + Wren

I had just read Shirl's post about the Blue Tits which nested in her camera nest box (HERE) when I decided to have a look at the feed from my camera nest box. Within a minute a Great Tit entered and spent a while examining the inside. In fact I saw it do this twice. Last year a pair of Great Tits successfully raised a brood in the box so I am hoping for a repeat performance this year but only time will tell.

The second investigation: (silent video)



Here is a reminder of last year's activity:



During the week I spotted a wren in the garden. The video has been slowed down a bit as they do rush about and it wasn't a very long clip: (silent video)



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you wherever you are.

Extra - Baldy the Great Tit:
This morning a pair of Great Tits investigated the camera nest box. It was very noticeable that one had a lot of feathers missing from its head. This possibly occurred during a fight as I have seen Great Tits fight to protect a favoured nesting site:

Wings on Wednesday

A bit of a mixture today. The first is from yet another visit from a Sparrowhawk. Once again it was unsuccessful and landed on top of the fruit cage. I kept the camera on it vainly hoping for a flight shot. It is normally too fast for my reactions but this time I just happened to press the camera release button at the moment it was starting to take off. Pure luck as I was expecting a still shot of it sat on the woodwork.



A while ago another of the fancy chickens had found its way into the churchyard. Not often I see such a  brilliant pure white bird. After a search through Google images I think it may be a White Cochin Frizzle Bantam.



Lastly during the unseasonally high temperatures last Sunday (maximum here was just over 18C) it was a trigger for insects of all sorts to take to the air in the glorious Sunshine.. This lacewing had settled on the outside of the conservatory door:



Unfortunately temperatures didn't stay anywhere near as nice and at the time of writing this, midday Tuesday, it is dull, cloudy, just below 8C and feeling distinctly chilly.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Four out of four correct identifications for last week's Guess What picture.
Congratulations and    go to Jan, Keith, Glo and Wilma who worked out that it was an ornamental owl.

   


For this week's puzzle photo here is a close view of a late Winter / early Spring flower from my garden.
Guess What:


No prizes - just for fun.

First Flutter of the Year

A few minutes ago I was checking to see what was around the pond when I saw a shape fluttering across. For a brief moment I thought it was a dragonfly. It landed on some gravel near the pond and stayed long enough to take a few shots.

The first Peacock Butterfly of the year:



Brilliant Sunshine but the air temperature is only 14.3C.

Same cropped photo process using the ReDynaMix plugin:

 

The oval on each photo is the Ellipse border from the Border Mania plugin.

Sunset Tweaked

I missed the best of yesterday's sunset. I could see it was going to be  colourful but by the time Bobby and I had reached an open space it was fading rapidly. I took a few shots to see what could be done with them. All have been cropped for height.

This one is as taken by the iPhone4 with just a slight amount of tweaking in Photoshop Elements.



This one is as the Lumix TZ7 saw things a couple of minutes earlier:



and the same photo but this time (over) processed with the ReDynaMix plugin to get the maximum colour, I am always amazed at the colour and detail ReDynaMix finds in the dark and light portions of a picture.



Finally a  zoomed shot from the Lumix with some processing in Elements:



On an enlarged copy of the final view it is possible to see Belmont TV tower on the right with all the red warning lights shining to warn aircraft of its 351.85m (1,154 ft) presence.