Wild About Images

I spent a magical 30 minutes on one of my drive by shootings during August when I spotted a neighboring farmer using 1950′s farming equipment to collect winter bedding for his cattle.

Couldn’t resist the chance to shoot some images of it and decided on HDR imagery. I have a lot of enquires as to how I process my HDR and selective coloring, you can follow this process below its not set in stone the way you do it but I find this way the easiest.

HDR is a process of combing multiple exposures of the same subject matter you can see from the unprocessed images below that I chose three exposures.

Exposure 1

Exposure 2

Exposure 3

Photomatix Pro software is the best way to combine the images into a more workable format it is a dedicated HDR program, you can use CS3 and Corel applications but as this is dedicated to HDR you get a lot more control over image values.

Photomatix Screenshot

Once the images are combined I import them into Photoshop and tweak any saturation/levels.

Processed HDR

To create selective colouring I then duplicate the layer

Remove the Colour from the Background copy

Select the erasure tool and slowly begin to erase the area around the tractor this will then reveal the colour from the background layer beneath.

Combining the two images together I then run a plug in for Photoshop that I recommend highly Virtual Photographer and select the snap preset.

Virtual Photographer Plugin

Its as very quick overview of how I process HDR I may have missed certain elements out and hope its given you a little insight of how I process, any questions please ask.

Little Red

Big thanks to Mike for letting me take the images.

Mammals gallery updated and migrated to new design.

Mammals

All credit goes to the organisers of this Air show (Dawlish Carnival Committee) not only is it a free event its location is set along side Devon’s beautiful coast.

Estimated 100,000 visitors enjoying the August Sun

The four hour display was not disappointing although the Battle of Britain memorial flight failed to show the Red Arrows put on a fantastic display against the Devon backdrop.

Red Arrows

Wasp

Hawker-Hunter

The location where I shot these images was near to the Smugglers inn public house, they charged £1 entrance fee, you got to see across the whole flight line, and they provided a tea van to boot!

Coastal Path nr to the Smugglers Inn Public House

Aviation Toggys

The initial reason for attending the event was to photograph XH558 It’s the first time I have seen the Vulcan on a display circuit since the restoration test flights, the 3.5 hr journey time from the Midlands was well worth it although the display would have been better had she been at a lower altitude.

Vulcan XH558 displaying at Dawlish

Make a date for your diary next year ! and once again a massive thanks to the organisers of this event, a great job well done !!

More Images from Dawlish

N joy Paul