In fact, throughout this informative and inspiring weekend, we kept wondering, “Why were we invited?” – especially when we met Ron Terwillinger of Trammell Crow Residential Company, who made a $100 million (yes, million) legacy gift to assist over 60,000 families access improved housing!

In addition to hearing CEO Jonathon Reckford’s presentation of HFHI new strategic 5 year plan we were able network with some of the HFHI top leaders, both nationally and internationally – and having lunch with Roslyn and Jimmy Carter at his family farm and attending his Sunday School class was icing on the cake.

We return to Columbus with a renewed commitment to continue, however we can, our advocacy for this trans-formative program that has built over 500,000 homes world wide.

“Proper shelter saves lives. It rekindles hope and roots families and communities. In decent housing, the walls are strong and the roof is secure – and the family inside focuses more on thriving than on surviving.

…but we have so much more to do – over 1.6 billion people in the world live in deplorable conditions.”

We invite you to join us on the road less traveled -  perhaps on a future international trip, or a local build or making a donation to your local affiliate or one of the innovative programs that HfHI has developed to Build Louder.

Continuing my HDR experiment (see previous post), I made several images that, as seen in the side-by-side comparisons below, further convince me to get better at it. For someone who typically brings home fifty to two hundreds shots from a shoot, the prospect of multiplying that by 3 or 5 is not insignificant, making clear the tradeoff between  HDR’s improved image quality and a bunch more hassle. So, my first step is simplification to raise the quotient enough for me to persevere through the learning curve. I’ll outline my workflow thoughts below, but first, let’s get to the payoff with a look at the images.

Mt. Lemmon 4 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 3 – Single

Mt. Lemmon 6 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 5 – Single

Mt. Lemmon 15 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 14 – Single

Mt. Lemmon 17 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 16 – Single

Mt. Lemmon 19 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 18 – Single

Mt. Lemmon 21 – HDR

Mt. Lemmon 20 – Single

Hugh Norris Trail 25 – HDR

Hugh Norris Trail 26 – Single

By clicking on a thumbnail to see a larger version and using the < and > in the bottom corners of the overlay, you can easily compare the results of an HDR series with that of the single image, and read my comments as well. In each case, I’ve done my post-processing to create the best image possible. These were all handheld, so there is a little loss of focus. Nonetheless, I prefer the HDR image in every case except… so it seems like I need to get better at it!

Workflow improvement starts in the camera. The Nikon D300 has bracketing and a settable function button, and with a tiny bit  more research and practice I effectively apply them for HDR. Custom setting f4 Assign Func. button allows me to access custom setting e5 Auto Bracketing Set with a single button press, to control it with the thumb and finger wheels, and to view the settings on the LCD, all  without having to delve into menus. With the drive mode set to CH, holding the shutter release button down takes the entire bracketed series in a second or so. Suddenly it’s very easy to record five times as many images!

Next I use the new color label in version 5 of ACDSee Pro to group each HDR series while doing my initial rating pass (using StrokeIt as I’ll detail in a separate post). So, glancing at the thumbnails,  five red or blue or yellow labels begin to look like one photo to be processed.

The luxury of two screens, my Lenovo SL500 laptop and an external 20” Viewsonic VX2035wm display, makes it simple to simply highlight an HDR series by color and drag them onto the Photomatix Loading Bracketed Photos panel. If there happened to be something moving between shots, I circle the ghosted area with the mouse, and click OK. Photomatix offers numerous sliders to adjust the output, but, fortunately, for now I can rely on the presets that are presented as thumbnails. So, again, one click on the chosen look and another on the Process button produces a tonemapped composite. For now, I am choosing a natural look from Photomatix, most frequently the Compressor – Deep preset. I’ve set the preferences for File>Save Image to use the first filename of the series and a suffix of “_HDR” and save as a JPG.

Back in ACDSee, I hit F5 to show the new file among its series, set it’s label color to match, and it is ready to be processed like any other single image. I’m enduring double processing as I learn, because I develop both the tonemapped image and the best single shot from the series so that I can compare the results. As I get more experience and confidence, I’m sure that I’ll cut that in half because the HDR photos have been consistently better. The one exception I’ve found is that if there is any movement that causes softness in the HDR, I will probably revert to the best of the single shots.

The next big workflow savings comes from the realization that I do not have to keep everything I shoot! I could argue that I might someday refine my technique or get a better HDR processing program and want to try again. But, instead, I’m taking the view that I’d rather apply such advances to the images I make tomorrow. Therefore, I choose to delete – yes delete! – the original three or five or seven shots and keep just the processed version. (Under the covers, ACDSee Pro also keeps the original tonemapped copy before processing). Voila! With this one simplification, I’ve reduced the “clutter factor” and the load per HDR image on my hard drive by 85%. Some purists will argue that I’m robbing myself of future development possibilities, but I see it as freeing myself for future shooting opportunities.

I am still in need of a better method to copy metadata such as location, headline and camera parameters into the new image. It would be best if Photomatix did it, but that seems not to be the case with my simplified workflow. (The article HDR Image Editing at what appears to be an interesting site called dpBestFlow.org seems to confirm this, and hints at more good stuff to read in the future! ) Neither does ACDSee Pro seem to handle it, so I tried GeoSetter which in turn led me to ExifTool. It’s a complicated world, but seems workable. More to come on this.

Bottom line, so far, is that, although the post-processing time is still killing me, I’m getting some better images with HDR. So, I’m willing to work my way a bit further through the learning curve. Like so many other things, it will take some patience and practice to get a handle on the basic processes, after which I look forward to exploring the more creative possibilities.

The time was enhanced by good friends Terry & Sue Baughman and Jim Zimmerman. Jim further spiced up an already interesting day by sharing many of his experiences as an Air Force mechanic before the start of his farming career, and as a restoration volunteer at this museum since his retirement.

The day also produced lots of photos. I frequently thought of Susi’s dad, Tom, who has taken me to many an air museum throughout the years, which further pushed me to try and get the best images I could. Tom, I hope you enjoy the images in this 02-24 Pima Air Museum album.

Several of these images were produced with HDR photography (i.e., High Dynamic Range, which is done by combining several shots of the same scene to better capture details in both the brightest highlights and darkest shadows). The Lighting tool in the ACDSee Pro 5 software that I use to process images does such a good job of muting overexposure and teasing out shadow detail that I usually do not bother with HDR. However, seeing the aircraft sitting in the brilliant, midday sun prompted me to push the envelope a bit.

Although these photos are somewhat mundane, I think that they do serve to demonstrate the value of HDR. In each case, I took a series of five shots, ranging from underexposed to overexposed, and combined them using the Photomatix Pro software package. Rather than fiddling with its numerous controls, I used Photomatix’s “Natural” defaults, and then finished the processing in ACDSee Pro as usual. I also processed the best shot from each series individually, so I have an interesting side-by-side comparison. Click on the thumbnails below to see for yourself and read my brief comments about the differences that I perceive. For those who may be curious, I’ve also included the five unprocessed images after the last example. Although the improvement with HDR is rather subtle in these images, it’s enough to convince me to practice it some more in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned and find out how I do!

Landing Gear – HDR

Landing Gear – Normal

Tail – HDR

Tail – Normal

Painted Aircraft 2 – HDR

Painted aircraft 2 – Normal

Painted Aircraft 3 – HDR

Painted Aircraft 3 – Normal

Raw 1

Raw 2

Raw 3

Raw 4

Raw 5

Susi and I have worked fairly extensively with Habitat for Humanity in in at least a dozen places such as Columbus, Ohio; Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Tucson, Arizona; Molepolole, Botswana; Tarija, Boliva; Phang Na, Thailand; etc. It is always comforting and encouraging to us that no matter where we go, we find the same formula: Along with other volunteers, work side-by-side with families to build simple, decent houses that they purchase with the help of an affordable mortgage, providing secure shelter and myriad other benefits that come from enabling people to dream and grow.

Nonetheless, some differences are very notable. For instance, try as you might, you simply cannot make this picture with the mountain as a backdrop in Columbus, Ohio! This is one of many photos that show the gorgeous settings in which we get to work. You can find them in these three albums: the 01-19 RCW Habitat Build album, the 01-26 RCW Habitat Build album, or the 02-09 RCW Habitat build album.

Susi and I tend to invite and encourage just about everyone we meet to get involved with Habitat for Humanity. But, right now, we especially wish you could join us to work here in this beautiful place!