HDR final shots

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 1/5

I picked my porch because it's somewhere that I go and sit a lot, and I have some very good memories on that porch swing. Also, it happened to have great repeating lines.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 1/6

I really like how this looked compositionally, and how I edited it. This is the garden that my mom has next to our house, and I helped plant it and we eat vegetables from it every year.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 2.0

This is a path in the woods behind my house where berries will grow every summer, and we pick them and eat them. I picked it because it's a place I know really well, and was a big part of my childhood growing up.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 3.0

This is an old fort in the woods that I helped build and paint when I was a kid, and I spent a lot of time there with my friends having advntures.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 2.0

This is a picture of my room and bed which is where I spend most of my time now. It's very messy and cluttered which really does describe me, and the decorations on and around the window are all things that I have an attachment to. I am very possessive of my bed, so I thought it had to be included.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 0.4

This is the view from my back patio, and I picked it because it overlooks a whole little valley, and I will come out here and just sit some nights and look at it because it's so beautiful. Here as well I have a lot of memories with friends and family that I definitely won't forget.



What are your thoughts on HDR & the visuals they produce.

At first, I really didn't like them because I thought that they looked to artificial, and honestly just kind of ugly, but as I looked at more and more of them that began to change. It still isn't my favorite type of photography, but I definitely have more of an appreciation for it now. I like that it allows you to see details in the highlights and shadows of a picture, and I think I will definitely use it in the future, especially for landscapes.

Do your images tell a story or are they just a collection of images? How has your relationship to making images changed in thinking about what you photograph? How did light affect/change your photograph?

My images do not tell a story, they are just a collection of images, of places that I know well and connect with. I didn't know about HDR before this assignment, so I didn't know that there was a better way, other than photoshop, to capture details in highlights, lowlights, and mid-tones all in the same picture, and that is something that I will definitely think about when making an image now, and I will think about composing my photographs to complement that information. I found that shooting in the evening with a warmer, softer light created a better photography for HDR, but other than that, the process really allows you to shoot in most kinds of light. Softer light just looks better in my opinion.

HDR Contact Sheet

Personal List

1. My room/bed: It's very messy which really does describe me, and it's the place where I spend most of my time, so it's very important to me. I am very possessive of my bed.
2. Our living room: I have a lot of memories of when this room was built onto our house, and this is where me and my friends hang out whenever they come over, so really it just has a lot of memories.
3. The old tree fort: We have a fort in our backyard that's totally destroyed now, but I used to spend a lot of time there as a kid, and had a lot of adventures.
4. The woods behind my house: Every year we go to the path in the woods behind our house and pick berries, and I know the woods by heart.
5. Our back patio, or at least the view from the back patio: The view from our back patio is really awesome, and I love it every time I look at it. I spend a lot of time out there just sitting or there is a fire pit that we will sit around.
6. The porch/porch swing: I spend a lot of time in the summers sitting on the porch during thunderstorms, and I've always liked it out there.
7. Devil's Den in Gettysburg: Me and a few of my good friends went there this summer for a ghost and it was a really fun time.
8. My coffee mug: It's just one specific coffee mug that I bought and always use.
9. My computer: It's what I spend probably most of my time doing, so it's pretty important to me.

HDR Article Notes

Nikon Article

• There are 2 reasons to make an HDR photo: necessity and creativity, and they often overlap, creating great photos with personal touches.
• Allows you to see more of what your eye really sees as no lens is as complex with light as the human eye
• Captures highlights and shadow details
• "In nature photography, the more realistic the better, but there are times when I want to make a graphic impression—and there are many subjects that work better with more interpretive processing. It's all personal preference." -Tony Sweet on his use of HDR photography.
• Shows that there are many different ways, and many different interpretations of HDR. "It's all personal preference."
• The HDR process gives you a choice: create a realistic image that has all the subtleties of the scene, or go for something more unrealistic, surreal, and illustrative. Or something in between.

Stuck In Customs Article

• HDR is a post-processing task of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed.
• Brings details to the shadows and highlights both
• "Cameras, by their basic-machine-nature, are very good at capturing “images”, lines, shadows, shapes — but they are not good at capturing a scene the way the mind remembers and maps it. When you are actually there on the scene, your eye travels back and forth, letting in more light in some areas, less light in others, and you create a “patchwork-quilt” of the scene. Furthermore, you will tie in many emotions and feelings into the imagery as well, and those get associated right there beside the scene. Now, you will find that as you explore the HDR process, that photos can start to evoke those deep memories and emotions in a more tangible way. It’s really a wonderful way of “tricking” your brain into experiencing much more than a normal photograph." I thought this was very thought provoking and a perfect way to describe photography. I'm not sure if HDR really makes a scene feel more real for me, but I can understand this.

HDR examples

  I really like the light coming through the tree in this photo, and the HDR makes it so you can still see the details in the tree. This photo demonstrates asymmetrical balance as a composition technique and does it beautifully.

The composition technique demonstrated in this photo is symmetrical balance, and I love the colors in this photo and the different way of going about symmetrical balance. I think this is a really, really cool photo, I would hang this on my wall.

 This photo has really nice leading lines with the floor and the pews. It leads your eyes right to the center, and the HDR effect makes the photo look like the church is very intricate and regal.

 This photo has really good repetition, and I felt like there was probably a story behind it. The black and white here was put to good use I think. Also, the clouds look surreal.

This photo looks like something someone created on photoshop or out of an animated movie, and I really like how this is a photograph but it looks so artistic and artificial. The composition is bird's eye view or a different perspective, and I definitely think it would be a lot worse if it were just a straight shot of a city scape

This shot has really nice framing and the colors compliment each other very well, so I liked it because of that, and because it has a sort of darkness feeling to it.

School HDR Shots

ISO: 400
f/22
SS: 1/8


I selected this location I really like how the hallways look in our school, especially this hallway and the one across from it, the art hallway. The leading lines that come out of the walls, ceiling, lights, and floors have always made walking here feel like something out of a movie. Also, I obviously walk here a lot since these two hallways are very main hallways, and I think it captures the essence of CV because it demonstrates the drab color scheme I've come to know so well perfectly.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 1/30


I chose this location mostly because I really like the detail in the solar panels and the contrast with the variously sized green trees. I think it makes the scene look very vast and definitely shows how large our student body is. I drive through here to get to school every morning, but not at this exact location, and it was cool to look at it from this perspective.

ISO: 100
f/22
SS: 1/30

I chose the tennis courts because I liked the vibrant colors, and there's something about them that is contenting or pleasing. They have a happy feel for me, and I'm not exactly sure why, maybe I don't remember, but they do. Also, I think having the big CV in the background through the fence has a really cool effect in showing the grandeur of the school. The CV is kind of like the symbol of our school. Everyone who has went here has seen it

Sketchbook Cover/Identity Project

1. The quote I used for this project relates to me because it is part of the result of a personality test that I took a while ago. I take a lot of these online for fun, and usually they're so relatable that everyone who takes the test could resonate with any result, but I definitely thought this one was creepily accurate for me. The quote is supposedly my current, biggest problem in life saying, "Fears he will be held back from achieving things he really wants, leading him to search endlessly for satisfaction and become involved in activities which are pointless." It's scarily true, and describes exactly what I think my largest struggle is, and it's unfortunately a big part of who I am, so I thought this was perfect.
2. The main picture on the cover is the picture of me with my family and some very close friends dressed up for the picture I took for my Latin project last year, and it describes a part of me because those people are a big part of who I am. I am very close with my siblings and the friends in the picture, and doing that project is a fun memory. Also, I won 3rd place and am very proud of it. I take some school projects very seriously. I am a calm person and very observational, and I notice when things are aesthetically pleasing. I think this definitely comes through in my cover with the flowers, tea cups, the cat, the sunset background, and the overall color scheme of it. Overall, it might not make a lot of sense right away when you look at it, but you know there are a lot of ideas there that are complex, interconnected, and if you look at it long enough you might be able to piece together, and I think that describes me pretty well.
3. I really like the end result. It could definitely be better, but I think it describes me and has a nice composition. I am happy with how i edited it in photoshop. I strongly suggest learning photoshop for future students because it looks a lot more cool. What I think could have been a lot better is the actual application of the photo onto the sketchbook. I really dislike my tape job. It got crinkled in one part and there is a weird red dot in the middle of the words that was on the tape , and I don't like it, but I can't really change it now. Overall, I am content with it.

Favorite Summer Picture

This is probably my favorite photo that I took over summer because I really love how perfect it looks compositionally, and there was no preparation for it. It shows how sometimes if you're in the right place at the right time, you can get a very good photo.