When Joe McNally speaks, I listen. I like his style, and he knows his … stuff. (Hi Mom!)

When he wrote about figuring out high-speed sync, I was intrigued. It’s something I’ve tried to get my camera/flash to do before, but at 1/400th and higher the shutter mirror partially blocks the sensor, creating a black border on one side. Besides that, my AlienBees CyberSync remote triggers only sync up to 1/250th anyway, so I’m pretty much out of luck here. Right?

I followed his link, but this time I noticed the part about this only works with TTL. OK, remote triggers are out. What about that flash cable I’ve got?

Set the D300 to “Auto FP High-Speed Sync”, set the flash in TTL mode, and start at 1/250th. Fine. 1/320th - fine. 1/400th - fine. 1/500th - fine (no black lines yet). etc. etc. etc. 1/2000th - fine.

Hmmm. (scratching my head) Well, what do you know? It works!

What about CLS? It works too! The only difference is the reduced output when using CLS. I had to go up 3 stops on the flash power in CLS mode @ 1/2000th to get the same brightness I had at 1/250th.

I know I tried CLS before, not sure why I thought it didn’t work. The CyberSync remote triggers won’t go that high, but I can use an ND filter to knock the light down 2 or 3 stops.

Some snapshots I took that day.

Everyone had a good time. It’s a lot of work to set these up and tear them down, but very cool for the kids and a great way for parents and teachers to mingle and have a good time.

Based on the comments on this blog post, it seems we shall see Camera Raw 5.1 and Lightroom 2.1 next week. I’m really looking forward to both. Too bad Camera Raw 5.1 is for Photoshop CS4 only.

Update: Yup, updates downloaded and installed last night. Also released was beta 2 of the DNG Camera Profiles.

Where are the good places to shoot in Oregon? Where is the highest concentration of good photo shoot locations in Oregon?

I’d like to take a vacation there someday, soon, and I’m sure photography will be a big part of that vacation. Also, taking naps, seeing the stars, listening to the ocean, and doing as little as possible will be on the agenda.

I’d love to find a place where I can rent a cheap an inexpensive cabin and be within two or three hours drive time of:

• pacific coast
• lighthouses
• waterfalls
• glass-smooth lakes
• lush forest
• notable geographic locations
• historic locations
• panoramic vistas
• great sunset/sunrise views

I don’t want much, do I? It’s hard, because I get the impression that the entire state is photo-worthy and awe-inspiring. What I don’t want to do is spend all day driving, that would suck. So please, leave a comment. Ask your photo-geek friends to leave comments. I’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas. If you’ve ever been to Oregon, what sights took your breath away? What would you like to see hanging on your living room wall, or in your calendar in the kitchen?

I thought I would write down, for my own benefit at the very least, my steps to creating HDR images using Photomatix Pro. Lately I’ve been using the beta of version 3.1, because it supports correction of chromatic aberrations and has noise reduction, as well as a slightly better tone mapping interface. My steps will be different from others because I rarely use Photoshop for anything and I prefer HDR images to still look like photos rather than painted abstract art.

First, let me say that Photomatix is great at creating HDR from a single RAW image. To do that, follow these steps.

1. With Photomatix open, choose “Single File Conversion …” from the “Automate” menu. 
2. Choose the “Convert RAW files …” option (won’t work on JPEG or TIFF images) and save the resulting .hdr file.
3. Close the Batch Conversion window and choose “Open …” from the “File” menu to open the file.
4. Continue tone mapping as below.

The second Aperture Nature Workshops contest opened up. I really want to go to this one - Yosemite, for 3 days, with pros giving me tips from 5:00 a.m. to midnight each day. I really want to go. You can’t just show up, you can’t buy your way in. They are invitation only, with invitations given to the top four in the photo contest. Did I mention how I really, really, really want to go to this one?

So, with those lovely lake photos I got last weekend, the timing seems ideal. I submitted the image I thought would do best in the contest. Now, all I need are votes. Lots of votes. A whole lotta votes. This is where you, dear reader, enter the story. I would appreciate your vote, please. Even if you don’t like the image, please vote for it. Please. Don’t make me beg. Ok, heck with it, I’m begging now. Did I mention how I really want to go to the workshop? I just need to place fourth or better. Please?

Vote for my photo!

I took the kids on a Fall Colors Photo Safari through the Colorado mountains last weekend. The fall colors part was a total bust, and stopping at the Georgetown Loop RR on the way home completely ruined the trip by being totally booked up. The only good part of the trip was staying in Grand Lake for the night. The hotel was great, the town was cozy, and the people were very nice. And the lake is incredible at 6:00 a.m. after a sunny day. So, we salvaged the trip with a few excellent shots of the lake just before sunrise.

I was looking at some unpublished images I had, and one struck me as a possible candidate for HDR to pull out light and color. I’ve posted the image to Flickr and Aminus3 and received nice comments on it, but it’s not perfect. Here’s a before and after comparison.

The original was dark and flat and bland, the HDR pulled out some light and color and created a pleasing image. Amazing what can be done with one RAW image. However, Photomatix worked awfully hard to get that - most settings were maxed out. And there are artifacts in the image which result from too dark of a source image.

There is some odd blue highlighting in the trees which shouldn’t be there.

Moral of the story: watch your histogram. If the source image(s) show(s) too much clipping, then there may be missing data which will cause odd effects in your HDR.

Surprising image quality, I think. I did no post processing whatsoever, I just exported them as JPEG files and uploaded them to the blog.

It was in the 90s (again!) so many animals were not being photogenic. Darn.