HDR photography, updated.

"Applied carefully, High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR) can create incredibly beautiful pictures which blur our sense of the difference between reality and illusion. In graphics HDR imaging is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques."

  www.smashingmagazine.com

I was introduced to the world of HDR photos by Phil Bates, wonderful photographer and talented artist. He was one to open my eyes on existence of this technique and (thank you. Phil!) I absolutely love it. 

If you are taking your time and doing things right (and have a little bit of luck on the top of technicalities), results can be simply amazing. Plus, if you like to paint, you can get great reference pictures for your future works. However process is not an easy one, takes a lot of time, patience, yet - right equipment. Out of many pictures you take only few may produce real quality images. I spend several hours this weekend playing with my new camera and software and got some nice photographs. One of them will be a beginning of my new painting. I have no name for it yet, but place is very beautiful and we are planning to take many more photographs of the same area over this summer.

So, here is my first HDR reference photo

And below- begining stage of new painting in Soft Pastels. I'm going to take my time with this one, because I need to finish few Oil Pastel paintings first, but I just had to try it! 

And finally I finished that very OP painting... and few others!.. And Now I'm back to this one and really want to have it done ASAP, it is already sitting around way too long.

Here is a next update to it. I wish I can finish it today, but hard to tell, if I'll be able to do it. We will see.

And of course Irina managed to sneak on me with camera, while I was working on this one yesterday night. My normal workstation was busy with new Oil Pastels, so it was a kitchen table this time!... (1AM, I really don't care what table).

Now I'm finally back to this one...

Gorgeous greens!.. You bet! I wanted it so bad, so finally ordered some from different makes and in different shades... not us many, as I'm sure, many of you have, but I like my "green kit".

It this picture I like the most that very mossy green structure of stones and bright green lives. .. Water, of course too. So it is all about green a first place.

I'll be honest - I'm sort of afraid of this painting, very demanding... usually if I don't give up, those demanding things are coming to be the very best ones after all, but yes, I do afraid of them and sometimes have no idea what i'm doing right in the middle of my work.

Tonight I go some free time and went back to it. Mostly I'm working on the top right corner for now and moving from there left and down. Will post more updates us it will be ready. So far just a photo of my setup with a little progress on this painting.

Had to put it on my easel too. Came to the point that can not work with it flat. Oh, well!...