Day 17: Bowling for Pics

Well hello there, strangers. How does it go for you this fine evening? I'm doing wonderfully, thanks for asking. New episode of Chuck tonight was pretty good. I enjoy that show immensely. Class start tomorrow. I hope to also enjoy those immensely. Now, onto the show.

I found a couple of ceramic fruit bowls back in the Kitchen Store today. They had really cool, twisty designs. So I brought one of them up to the front counter to take some pictures.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 400.
Click image for larger version.

The only thing I changed in Aperture was a little cropping to the image to center it and to remove my fingers from the bottom left of the image (I was balancing on a stool trying not to fall; my hand was steading me). I kind of like how this one came out, but I really like how the next one came out.

.4 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 400.
Click image for larger version.

I am a little bummed that the blue bowl is a bit blurry. I tried to clean it up as best I could in Aperture, but it could only do so much. This will be another one of those pictures that I come back to and retake in the future. We have a table in the back with a red table cloth, so I set the bowls on top of each other and put them on the table cloth. I like the colors in this one. And I really like the red in this. I didn't change anything with the colors in post. Some of the other photos I took of this bowls had a lighter, pinkish, washed-out red look, but this one came out really strong red. I just wish I had realized how blurry the blue bowl was going to be so I could have adjusted it while still at work. But at least it'll give me something to photo on another day at work.

The last photo of today is my first attempt at doing some HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Basically what you do is take the same photo at varying exposures, and the HDR software composites the images together for a unique look to the image. I used a program called Photomatix. There's a plug-in for Aperture. Right now it's in a trial version so there's watermarks on the image until I can afford to buy it outright. But it still gives you an idea. I definitely will need to read up some more on before I do anymore HDR. Some photos I've seen that use HDR are really cool. And this one is okay, but not quite as nifty as some things I've seen around.

I took some of the exposures from the sunset photos of Day 9. I think I still the like the original image that I posted that day over this HDR image, but like I said, I want to do some more practice and reading before giving it up all together.

3 images composited in HDR using Photomatix.

Okay. The Cape is on now. I'm not sure how I feel about this show yet. The premiere was a bit ridiculous, but the one after that was a little better. It's got some potential maybe. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite!