February 8, 2016 – Welcome again to HDR News You Can Use!

The holidays are over and winter has set in. This is when the weather can bring you crystal clear air and new fallen snow or the wet mess of a storm.  Either way getting out there and photographing will up your game and reward you with some winners.  

WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY – AVOID THE PITFALLS

Winter provides incredibly beautiful opportunities for the HDR photographer but, there are variables you need to manage in winter to be successful.  Snow will throw your camera’s meter off by as much as 3 stops, auto focus can be rendered useless by falling snow and battery life is greatly shortened by the cold.  A great article by Rick Sheremeta in Outdoor Photography will show you how to manage these and other pitfalls in winter photography. It contained winter shooting tips that were new even to us! Sheremeta and his wife Dody own and operate Alpenglow Productions, LLC in northwestern Montana.

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/tips-for-winter-photography.html#.Vq1tTjYrKEI

HDR EXPOSE 3 – KING OF NATURAL LOOKING HDR

Viktor Elizarov is a Montreal-based photographer who produces the informative blog Photo Traces (www.phototraces.com).  Viktor is an accomplished landscape photographer who often uses HDR techniques.  Viktor’s workflow is based on Lightroom and he’s taken the HDR Expose 3 Lightroom plugin through its paces.  He was quick to realize our application’s superior, natural results.  Viktor:  “As a photographer, I use HDR technology to produce balanced and natural looking photos. HDR Expose 3 gives me complete creative control and helps to achieve my goal.  It is great to see another very capable player in (the) HDR space”

http://www.phototraces.com/reviews/hdr-expose-3-king-of-natural-looking-hdr/

WHAT MAKES A PHOTO MEMORABLE?

Would it surprise you that the historic photos of 1989’s “Tank Man” in Tiananmen Square and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon are only moderately “memorable”?  According to an algorithm developed by MIT researchers these photos and most landscapes are rated as having low to medium memorability.  

“What’s really memorable? Weird and counterintuitive images do well, according to the algorithm. A stop sign spray-painted with the word “go,” a peculiar chair, a man in a sumo suit dragging a snowboard or a shirtless man wearing a bear mask.”

Here’s the link to the article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/29/forget-beautiful-sunrises-embrace-absurdity-heres-how-to-take-memorable-photos/

Want to see how memorable your photos are?  Run your own test:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/29/forget-beautiful-sunrises-embrace-absurdity-heres-how-to-take-memorable-photos/

THEY’RE FINALLY HERE – NIKON ANNOUNCES THE D5 AND THE D500

In case you missed it, Nikon introduced two cameras at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas; the pro-targeted D5 and the enthusiast oriended D500.  The D5 replaces the professional workhorse D4S at a hefty list price of $6,499.95.  More interesting for the up-and-coming photographer is the long awaited D500 which replaces the D300S after a six-year wait.  Check out the interview with Nikon DSLR Product Manager Mark Soares to get an idea of the features .

http://www.dpreview.com/interviews/8708891704/ces-video-interview-with-nikon-about-the-d5-and-d500-dslrs

COOL PHOTOGRAPHS

HDR photographers can tend to lean toward viewing landscape photography.  But every so often it’s good for the creative juices to look outside your comfort area.  We were impressed with this photo set of the Dakar roadrace that, in addition the action, shows great landscapes.  Check it out.

https://flipboard.com/section/the-photo-desk-g769be46ernmgmr9/dakar-rally-2016-in-pictures/a-3Ba1fb1SSV2lfjcT6pAcFQ%3Aa%3A94188136-c0b84e9e41%2Fflipboard.com?

December 20, 2015 – Welcome again to HDR News!  We hope the Holidays are bringing you tons of joy. This is the time of year when the air becomes clear and the golden hour arrives early.  We hope you’re finding the time to get out there and make some memorable images.

“THINGS I FIND BEAUTIFUL”

These stressful times can leave a dour expression on anyone’s face. If you’re making a portrait of someone their underlying stress can jump through your lens and leave some sadness on your camera’s sensor. This high school photographer spoke a simple expression that transformed her subjects from sadly blasé to ebullient.  You need to see this short video. It’s especially poignant during the Holidays.

http://www.lostateminor.com/2015/12/08/student-captures-peoples-expressions-after-being-told-theyre-beautiful/

AUTOMATIC HDR BRACKETING

If you’re into HDR you know about exposure bracketing and the limitations your camera may have, especially when shooting longer exposures. Low light HDR shooting will force you to use the bulb setting on your camera which means you’ll have to be near your camera and manually time and trip each shot.  If you’re doing time-lapse shooting you’ll need to return to your camera at each exposure interval to trip the shutter.  Wouldn’t it be nice to automate those functions and even have access to additional exposure settings that are not native to your camera?  You need to check out the Promote Control.  The Promote Control can shoot up to 45 exposures per setting at shutter speeds ranging from 1/8000 sec to several hours ( we bet your camera doesn’t have those settings!).  Right now you can save $100 on a Promote Control and HDR Expose 3 bundle.

Learn about the Promote Control – HDR Expose 3 bundle:  http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/products/ultimate-hdr-package

DON’T FORGET OUR $20 OFF HOLIDAY SALE

This is the time to dive into HDR photography with HDR Express, enhance your Photoshop capabilities with 32 Float v3 or upgrade to the full-featured HDR Expose 3.  Any way you go, you’ll be getting the best HDR software out there.  All three applications are based on Pinnacle’s full 32-bit Beyond RGB color space, which virtually eliminates color shifts and data loss in your photo editing. The latest versions have improved de-ghosting algorithms and a new automatic noise reduction feature that will produce even better results under the most challenging lighting conditions. HDR Express 3 and HDR Expose 3 also have improved merge capabilities.

Use the code HOLIDAY2015 at checkout to get your $20 discount.  The sale ends December 26th.

http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/products

GETTING CREATIVE WITH THE AURORA BOREALIS

The Aurora Borealis or The Northern Lights are the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere. Variations in color are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.   Once you’ve shot the Northern Lights a number of times you’ll be competent with the exposures but then, what do you do to make your images more creative?  Photographer Paul Zizka (http://zizka.ca/) is an expert in the difficult pursuit of photographing these lights and he shares his tips here.

The article: https://iso.500px.com/getting-creative-with-aurora-photography/

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Flipboard has a section titled The Photo Desk where it displays its Pictures Of The Week. Whether you agree with their picks as being the best of the week or not you’ll usually be impressed by some of the photos and those photos will inspire you to push your own photography to a new heights.

Check out the Photos Of The Week for 12-10-15:  http://cdn.flipboard.com/content/thephotodesk/thephotodeskgalleries/items/1449767348000.html?utm_campaign=photodesk&utm_medium=photodesk.1211&utm_source=email

A SALUTE TO TRI-X

The first affordable, professional class digital camera, the Nikon D1 became available in June of 1999; just sixteen years ago. Photoshop was introduced in 1990 but at that time most of the work done on Photoshop was on scans of film.  Ah, film!  Prior to the late 1990s film was the lingua franca of photography.  The great photographers Henri Cartier Bresson, Alfred Eisenstadt, Alfred Newman, Eugene Smith, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and on and on and on all made their famous images on film.  And, most often that film was Kodak Tri-X.

While we are helping define the future of digital imaging here at Pinnacle we still honor and respect the giants of film photography and their tools.  Here’s a quote from a neat story on the awesome history of Tri-X:

“The…important innovation (of Tri-X) was aesthetic.  It is hard to describe exactly the look of a Tri-X picture.  Words like “grainy” and “contrasty” capture something of the effect, but there is more, something to do with the obsidian blacks produced by the film and with a certain unique drama that made ….”  Read on:  

http://www.intelligentlifemagazine.com/content/features/bryan-appleyard/tri-x-factor

50 MEGAPIXELS?!?  YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS

Canon recently introduced the 5DS and 5DS R cameras that sport a 50-megapixel sensor. Do more pixels mean a higher quality image? Here’s what the venerable DPREVIEW has to say: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5ds-sr

November 22, 2015 – We’re back!  Changing our company name from Unified Color Technologies to Pinnacle Imaging Systems was quite a project.  Now this process is complete! We’re pleased with the results and our new website and we hope you like them too.  During this transition, our team was also hard at work finalizing the latest free updates to all our HDR applications. We’ve improved our merge and de-ghosting algorithms as well as implementing a new automatic noise reduction feature that will produce even better results under the most challenging lighting conditions. If you haven’t already you can download the free updates here:

HDR Expose 3:  http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/download-hdr-expose-3

32 Float v3:  http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/download-32-float-3

HDR Express 2:  http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/download-hdr-express-3

YOU’VE GOT A PROBLEM – You’ve got a photography problem that you may not know about. Your camera’s lens is made up of multiple glass elements separated from each other inside the lens barrel.  When the light of your image passes through each element a small portion of the light is reflected back into the lens barrel creating a haze effect known as veiling glare.  The more high-end your lens the better the coating on the lens elements and the less veiling glare you’ll experience but even the best lenses produce tiny amounts of glare.  Now, when you merge multiple images together this haze is multiplied and becomes a problem that needs to be corrected.  HDR Expose 3 and 32 Float v3 eliminate this problem with our special Veiling Glare tool. Take a few short minutes to see how it works. You’ll be surprised to see it’s effectiveness:  http://pinnacleimagingsystems.com/video-tutorials/32-float-3-0/2

PHOTOGRAPHERS WE LIKE – L.A. based photographer Ted Gore was recently named U.S.A. Landscape Photographer Of The Year by the organization of the same name.  It’s a competition which calls itself “A new international photography competition that puts the spotlight on talented photographers from around the world and celebrates the rural and urban landscape of the U.S.A.”  Ted Gore is the real thing and deserving of his new title. Ted’s compositions push the tried-and-true landscape to the next level with a laser focus on where he wants the viewer to look first and then, keep on looking. His post processing takes firm control of the wide range of brightness in his scenes and delivers a thought provoking mood.  Visit his site.  It’s worth the time spent:  http://www.tedgorecreative.com

HDR AND BOURBON – It turns out that HDR blends well with bourbon over ice with a twist. Not really but HDR does blend with bourbon distilleries.  In 1919 when Prohibition was signed into law there were over 200 distilleries making bourbon in Kentucky.  By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933 only 61 reopened which left a lot of beautiful steam engines, bottling lines, scales, barrel runs, fermenting tubs and springhouses to slowly deteriorate; perfect for the HDR photographer.  That photographer is Carol Peachee who spent five years photographing bourbon’s remains and at the same time uncovering a bygone culture.  Now, we’re not fans of the often seen, unsightly, garish HDR over processing and Peachee skirts that genre of HDR but the compositions more than make up for her enthusiastic processing.  You can get a sampling of the photos in her book The Birth Of Bourbon here: http://gardenandgun.com/gallery/tour-kentuckys-early-distilleries#slide-0 

PIX 2015, A TALK TO GET YOUR CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING – You may have heard that old saying that when you’re making a photograph, turn around for find an even more interesting scene. Photographer and author Tim Grey makes a similar case and a whole bunch more at his 2015 PIX talk that you can see on the DP Review website. The talk will get you thinking and maybe twist your creative faucet a bit:  http://www.dpreview.com/articles/2958299752/pix-2015-tim-grey-and-reframing-your-story

CANON’S PHOTO EXPO BEST TECH SHOW EVER? – Every five years Canon pulls the advanced stuff out of it’s labs and takes it on a four-stop demo show that will leave your jaw on the floor.  “There are 250-megapixel imaging sensors, 8K surround-view movie theaters, cameras that record detailed color video in the pitch-black darkness and inkjet printers the size of three-bedroom apartments.  Check it out here: http://www.wired.com/2015/09/wildest-futuristic-tech-canons-photo-expo/#slide-1 

 August 26, 2015  –  HDR News is back.  We’re been busy working on some software updates and getting out there ourselves to shoot in this beautiful summer weather.  It’s travel time and we hope your summer shooting is inspiring!  As always you can read HDR News on the web with photos at https://wp.pinnacleimagingsystems.com.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE COLOR

Did you know the color adjustment tools in HDR Expose 3 and 32 Float v3 use Unified Color’s Beyond RGB Color technology?  Beyond RBG allows you to adjust color in your images without changing the color’s brightness or changing other colors in the image?  Other imaging applications are based on the RGB color model.  In those apps when you change one color you can’t help but affect related colors.  Beyond RGB separates the brightness and color channels so when you make color changes in one color other colors are virtually unaffected.

This is a really important feature when editing the great photos of fall foliage that you’ll be making in a few weeks.  Want to hone in and perfect the red in your image?  Go ahead.  You’ll get an improved red and you won’t affect that beautiful blue sky.  Want to learn more?  Check out the great tutorial on HDR Expose’s and 32 Float’s color capabilities by V.P. of Marketing John Omvik here:  http://unifiedcolor.com/video-tutorials/hdr-expose-3-0/9

YOUR FALL FOLIAGE PHOTOGRAPHY READER

The exciting blast of color in the landscape’s fall foliage is just around the corner.  If photographers are fortunate enough to find the right landscape they can use subtle tips that will turn their snapshots into cherished photographs.  We’ve selected the following articles to help you choose great locations for your fall photos and give you techniques for turning the scenes in front of you into images you’ll want to hang on your wall.

The Photo Argus:  A Detailed Guide To Photographing Fall Foliage – Being the artist that you are we know you want to take your fall foliage photographs beyond typical travelog images and go for a more artistic expression of your scene.  This article gives you fine suggestions for upping your composition choices like shooting during the “blue hour” and even late into the evening.  The photos accompanying the article get you thinking beyond the ordinary and alone are worth checking out the piece:  http://www.thephotoargus.com/a-detailed-guide-to-photographing-fall-foliage/ 

Nikon:  Ten Tips For Shooting Fall Foliage – Location, light, exposure, photographer Rod Planck covers it all in respect to shooting fall foliage in this concise article on Nikon USAs website:  http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Article/h7dfres5/10-tips-for-shooting-autumn-foliage.html

The Travel Channel: Travel’s Best Fall Foliage Road Trips – This article is from 2013 and it’s one of the best we’ve found for laying out incredible drives to take in the autumn colors.  Of course, 2013 is only two autumns ago so we’re darn sure the locations cited will still be there.  The article covers trips ranging from New Hampshire’s Route 11 to Virginia’s Skyline Drive to Wisconsin and on to South Dakota.  Best of all the article includes maps for each trip.  You need to check this one out:  http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/travels-best/photos/fall-foliage-road-trips-2013

Weather.com:  50 Stunning Places Around the World To See Fall Colors – You wouldn’t think of The Great Wall Of China as a fall foliage destination but it is!  Check out this article from 2014 if for no other reason than the photographs from around the world that display fall in a stunning way.  If you’re an international kind of photographer you’ll find the information is invaluable.  Locations cited include Iceland, Wales, The Netherlands, India’s Kashmir Valley, Japan and even Finland:  http://www.weather.com/holiday/thanksgiving/news/places-see-fall-color-photos-20140922

Opal Magazine:  Five Fresh Ways To See Fall Foliage – For you east coasters, if you’re looking for an alternate foliage experience than driving along country roads in the family car then this article is for you.  The piece reveals ballon rides, windjammer cruises and a foliage train ride: http://magazine.opalcollection.com/fall-foliage/

July 26, 2015  –  HDR News is back.  We’re been busy working on some software updates and getting out there ourselves to shoot in this beautiful summer weather.  It’s travel time and we hope your summer shooting is inspiring!  As always you can read HDR News on the web with photos at https://wp.pinnacleimagingsystems.com.

THE HDR PANORAMA STORY 

One of the spectacular honorable mention winners in the 2015 HDR Contest was an HDR panorama by William Flynn.  Combining HDR and stitching multiple images to create a stunning wide image requires technical knowledge and perseverance.  William has both and was helped along with HDR Express 3 software.  You can see William’s image on the contest summary website: http://unifiedcolor.com/photo-contest-2015-results-page-1.  Here’s Williams account of his process.

The making of the “Salt River Cliffs Panorama

The image began as 30 individual photos. A Nikon D300 was set in portrait orientation on my tripod directly across the river from the central portion of the cliffs. The camera was panned to the far right of the scene and a 5-image burst was taken with 2/3rds f-stop bracketing (1-1/3rd f-stops over, 2/3rds over, proper exposure, 2/3rds under and 1-1/3rd under exposed.

The pan was then turned left (maintaining a level orientation) and 5 more shots were taken. This process was repeated 6 times ensuring that some overlap occurred in all of the images. Each of the 5-shot brackets was processed in HDR Express and saved as a TIFF file. On average each of these TIFF’s was about 72 Mbytes in size.

Using the photo-merge script in Photoshop, the 6 images were aligned and merged into a single panoramic image that was more than 350Mbytes in size. After cropping and applying the usual set of Photoshop tweaks and adjustments I use on most of my images, the final file was saved as a 311.5 Mbyte TIFF with a native size, as listed in Photoshop, of 32inches horizontal by 14.3 in vertical at 300dpi.

I was really pleased at how quickly HDR Express processed each of the 5 Nikon RAW files into an HDR image and how easy it was to use its adjustment controls to wind up with exactly the look I wanted – as dramatic as the scene actually was, but not artificial. As always, in photography, the proof is in the final image.

Bill Flynn 

TOP TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHERS SHARE THEIR FAVORITE LOCATIONS

More than half the summer remains and the visually awesome fall season approaches.  It’s the time to pack the gear and get deep into our photography.   You can always make great photographs in your home area but you know that the inspiration that comes from a trip to a new location is a creative boost.    Need a little push?  Here’s a great article where top photographers share their favorite locations around the world.  http://www.phototraces.com/photo-location-guide/top-travel-photographers-reveal-their-favorite-photo-locations-around-the-world/

TRAVEL TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

A nasty travel mishap that happens all the time is lost luggage.  If you’re a pro photographer losing a piece of luggage with $10,000 to $20,000 of equipment is serious business.  It’s no less traumatic for the photo enthusiast to have the airlines mis-handle their precious gear either.  Here are three useful articles by pro photographers on how they limit their exposure to the air travel system.

“Airline Travel Tips For Photographers” by pro wedding photographer Matthew Saville gets detailed about your equipment bag strategy:  http://www.slrlounge.com/airline-travel-tips-for-photographers/

“Traveling As A Photographer: Packing & Flying with Camera Gear” by pro music show shooter Todd Owyoung gets into specific bag choices: http://www.ishootshows.com/2015/01/20/traveling-photographer-packing-flying-camera-gear/

“Flying Your Photography Gear Using a Media Rate” is an interesting piece on a little known flat-rate for members of the media, photographers and film makers: https://fstoppers.com/business/flying-your-photography-gear-using-media-rate-60137

iPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY WINNERS

The international photography contest, The iPhone Photography Awards, that promotes mobile photography has announced the winners of its eighth annual competition.  Catch the winners and commentary on Time magazine’s online site at:  http://time.com/3919216/iphone-photography-awards-winners-revealed/

THE SUMMER COVERS OF LIFE MAGAZINE

We never get tired of looking back at the golden age of photography.  It was a time when the primary outlet for great photographs were the glossy magazines like Life, Look, Time, The Saturday Evening Post and even Vogue.  What better time than mid summer to take a look at Life’s Magazine’s 35 Best Summer Covers:  http://time.com/3901874/life-magazine-summer-covers/

June 28, 2015 – Welcome to this update to the June HDR News.  We wanted to alert you to new content on our website and remind you that our $20 Off sale is ending soon.

June 16, 2015  –  HDR News is back with news about the winner of the 2015 HDR Contest and some great photo features from around the web.

2015 HDR CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Contest Entries by Vic Moss

Judging was difficult in this years HDR Contest with winner Vic Moss edging out Honorable Mention winners Doug Deleaver and William Flynn.  Check our blog to see the winning images and learn a little about the contest judges:  http://unifiedcolor.com/content/hdr-contest-winners-0

AN INTERVIEW WITH HDR CONTEST WINNER VIC MOSS

2015 HDR Contest winner Vic Moss is an architectural photographer based in Denver, CO who creates beautiful and compositionally pleasing photographs that are near perfect in technical execution. We caught up with him in the middle of a working trip and he gave us an insight into his art and business.  You can read the interview with Vic on our blog at:  http://unifiedcolor.com/content/interview-vic-moss-2015-hdr-contest-winner

TAKE $20 OFF YOUR PURCHASE DURING FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL

In honor of all you fathers and someday-to-be fathers we’re taking $20 off the purchase of HDR Expose 3, HDR Express 3, 32 Float v3 and the Combo Suite.  Just use this code at checkout to get your savings.  Hurry because the special ends on Tuesday June 30.

Code:   FATHERSDAY2015

HDR SEASIDE PHOTOGRAPHY INSTRUCTION BY BETTY WILEY

Our 2013 HDR Contest winner and 2015 HDR Contest judge Betty Wiley is an established professional photographer based in Yarmouth Port, MA on beautiful Cape Code.  Betty creates serene, thought provoking landscape images that evoke memories of vacations past.  Her work is regularly featured in magazines like Cape Cod magazine.  We were fortunate to have Betty host an extremely informative webinar that demonstrates the way she approaches a scene and how she deals with the resulting image in post processing.  This two-part webinar is posted to our website and ready to watch whenever you’re ready.  Check out the webinar here:

Part 1:  http://unifiedcolor.com/video-tutorials/hdr-expose-3-0/14

Part 2:  http://unifiedcolor.com/video-tutorials/hdr-expose-3-0/15

AROUND THE WEB

2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest – Yes, we know we’ve been talking a bunch about our HDR contest but if you shoot travel photographs and you don’t want to be wedged into using HDR techniques (though we think you should) this may be the contest for you.  Check out this site if for no other reason than to see examples of this year’s contest entries.  If you want to enter you need to get going because the deadline is Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 12 pm EDT.  http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest-2015/

Running With Smugglers – Photojournalism is not about HDR techniques and frequently not about pretty pictures at all.  It’s about telling a story and telling a story about clandestine pursuits is harrowing, dangerous and will keep you alive and in the moment.  Aram Karim takes us inside the smuggler’s world in Kurdistan, a tribal area that spans Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria in this fine set of photographs in the N.Y. Time’s Lens section.  It’s a life few westerners can imagine.  http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/following-smugglers-in-kurdistan/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Multimedia&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body#

Where Airplanes Go To Die – If you fly for your photography you have to wonder what happens to a plane after its reaches the age where it can’t be made safe to fly.  Where are all those huge, tired machines of flight?  Right here in the Mojave Desert:  http://chrisguillebeau.com/where-airplanes-go-to-die-new-photos-show-an-airline-graveyard-in-the-mohave-desert/

 May 19, 2015 – Welcome back to HDR News!  We’ve got interesting news about the winner of last year’s Unified Color HDR Contest and some really interesting photography from around the web.  Let’s get started.

2014 HDR CONTEST WINNER TURNS PRO!

We were gratified to recieve notice from last year’s HDR Contest winner Nuurs Ortiz that since winning the contest he as turned pro and is making his living in photography.  Nuurs’ winner image has adorned the Unified Color homepage since the contest.  The image is so strong we hesitate to switch it out for another image.

In his new professional career Nuurs is specializing in interior architectural photography and he’s making great use of HDR Expose 3 to tame the huge brightness difference between the outdoor and indoor light he encounters in many situations.  We interviewed Nuurs to get the details of current work and the story behind his winning image.  We’ll be featuring that conversation on our blog at http://www.unifiedcolor.com/blog

THE FINAL STRETCH

We’re now in the final stretch of the 2015 HDR Contest.  We’ve been receiving some wonderful entries which, we’ve been sharing with you on our blog (http://unifiedcolor.com/blog) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UnifiedColorTechnologies).  Check them out!

But, it’s time for YOU to enter the contest.  All you have to do is resize your favorite HDR photo to a 72dpi jpeg no wider than 1,800 pixels wide and email it in.  Do It!  It’s Free!  You can check out the contest details here http://unifiedcolor.com/photo-contest-2015

DOES YOUR CAMERA’S SHUTTER SPEED GO TO 1/8000 SEC? – IT CAN

If you’re already into HDR you know that your camera’s controls can be limited when you try to create bracketed exposures.  With a tool like the Promote Control you’ll be able to shoot automatic brackets of up to 45 images which is way beyond the capabilities of even top-of-the-line DSLRs.  

The Promote Control shoots automatic brackets of up to 45 images with up to a 9.0 EV step between shots.  It can even automatically step into Bulb for night HDR.  You can also set the Promote Control for exposures from 1/8000 sec up to hours, employ mirror lock-up and adjust delays between shots.

Right now you can get the Promote Control and a copy of HDR Expose 3 and save $100.  Details of the bundle:  http://unifiedcolor.com/products/ultimate-hdr-package

PHOTOGRAPHERS WE LIKE

The Pulitzer Prize winning publication The Guardian, based in the U.K., runs a yearly landscape photography contest and crowns the winner the Take A View Landscape photographer of the year.  We thought we’d look a little deeper into the work of 2014 winner Mark Littlejohn and thought you should see it too.  Littlejohn prefers to go out extremely early in the morning and work with dense U.K. mist that hugs low to the ground and provides an ethereal look to his images.  Visit his website.  It’s worth the time:  http://markljphotography.co.uk/

AROUND THE WEB

Summer’s Here And The Time Is Right for…..   You know the song but do you know our National Parks?  To prepare us for summer the Conde Nast Traveler put together a look at America’s Best National Park Road Trips.  If you’re looking for some photographic inspiration read the article and then get in your car, go and make an image that you can enter in the 2015 HDR Contest!  http://www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2015-04-03/america-best-national-park-road-trips-yellowstone-shenandoah-redwood

Behind The Lens – Pete Souza is a quiet, non-assuming man who happens to have virtually complete access to the daily life of U.S. President Barack Obama.  He’s the current chief White House staff photographer.  Last week Obama visited South Dakota making him one of just three presidents to visit all 50 states.  To mark the occasion Souza, with the help of photo editor Phaedra Singelis, created a collection of one presidential photo from each of the fifty states save South Dakota which was to happen after the project.  https://medium.com/vantage/behind-the-lens-photographing-the-president-in-50-states-8202eca6408

Powerful Photos – Buzzfeed recently put together a compilation they called “40 Of The Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken”.  It includes a number of well known photos and many that will be new to you.  Indeed powerful.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/most-powerful-photographs-ever-taken#.to5VXvpxz

April 22, 2015 – Welcome back to HDR News. We’re solidly into spring and all that it brings the photographer in terms of changing weather, brilliant flowers and longer days.  What better time to get going with HDR.  For a great primer on HDR shooting download our free guide Five Steps To Great HDR Photography https://unifiedcolor.leadpages.net/five-steps-to-great-hdr-hdr-news/

COLOR TOOLS YOU WON’T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE

Did you know that when you adjust the brightness or contrast of an image in most image editing apps, its color will shift?  That’s right.  Go into virtually any image editing program and make a brightness or contrast change and pay close attention to the image’s colors.  You’ll notice those colors change before your eyes.  That’s because those programs are based on the traditional RGB color model.  The Red, Green and Blue in those programs are linked together so that when you change one color, the others will be affected as well.

The Beyond RGB color model used in our applications is completely different because color is separted from brightness.  So when you make a brightness or contrast change your colors are unaffected.  The unique advantage to separated brightness and color channels is you can shift a color in our applications, at will, without affecting other colors or the image’s brightness or contrast: very powerful.

Watch this four minute video where our VP of Marketing, John Omvik takes you through our special color editing tools: http://unifiedcolor.com/video-tutorials/hdr-expose-3-0/9

THE ENTRIES ARE COMING IN

The 2015 HDR Contest is under way and we’re receiving some very interesting entries.  Natural HDR is finally here, judging by these early entries.  Almost completely absent are images with harshly posterized colors and head scratching composition.  Instead we’re seeing HDR images that tame high contrast yet deliver a completely natural and believable look.  We’ll be posting sample entries on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UnifiedColorTechnologies and blog http://unifiedcolor.com/blog throughout the rest April and all of May.  You can submit your entry for free until May 31. The contest details are here http://unifiedcolor.com/photo-contest-2015

AROUND THE WEB

Look Down! – A nine photographer team called AirPano began making aerial photographs of the world’s most famous locations.  The results are eye-popping and serve up a fresh look at well known scenes like the Taj Majal, the Victoria Falls, Manhattan, the Pyramids and many more.  This is a must-see:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3004453/Do-look-world-s-STUNNING-panoramic-landscapes-never-seen-before.html

16 Must Take West Coast Hikes – How often do we lace up our hiking boots and hit the trails with hope of finding the unique view that will put it’s imprint on a great image.  Well, a hike into the wilderness will energize your quest and this article does a nice job of revealing hikes that will up your chances of making a memorable image.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolenguyen/west-coast-best-coast-hikes?lang=en&utm_campaign=10today&flab_cell_id=3&flab_experiment_id=130&uid=97274556&utm_content=article&utm_source=email&part=s1&utm_medium=10today.0413&position=5&china_variant=False#.yy4VJDRbd

Film and a Yearbook – We take momentos like school yearbooks for granted.  For most of these Afgan school children it was the first time they had ever been photographed.  “The school was funded in 2006 by the Penny Campaign, an initiative of the nonprofit Roots of Peace…at the time, the school was an ovewrcrowded makeshift structure which used a sheet to shade the children from the harsh sun”.  Check out this National Geographic story about photographer Ruvan Wijesooriya’s venture into this war-torn destination where he captured children being children using the permanence of film. http://goo.gl/dompTN

DOWNLOAD A 30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Our trial software is a fully functional application that you can use for 30 days with no obligation whatsoever.  Give one a try!

HDR Expose 3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-expose-3

HDR Express 3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-express-3

32 Float v3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-express-3

April 4, 2015 – Welcome Again to HDR News. It’s HDR Contest time again. As always this contest is targeted at photographers just like you. It’s free to enter and it’s a great way to have your work seen and evaluated.  Getting involved in the 2015 HDR Contest will certainly push you to up your skills.  You can learn more on the contest page http://unifiedcolor.com/photo-contest-2015

THE SALT OF THE EARTH

The Salt Of The Earth is the title of a new documentary on the work of revered social photographer Sebastiao Salgado. The title also describes the man himself who has spent his life bringing the soul of the world’s outcasts to the forefront.  The documentary is by Wim Wenders and is co-directed by Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, a team that is sufficiently close enough to the great photographer to provide insights unachievable by others.  You can watch the trailer for the film at http://www.firstshowing.net/2015/watch-trailer-for-sebastiao-salgados-the-salt-of-the-earth-doc/

ARE YOU CONTROLLING?

Controlling your camera that is.  A wonderful addition to the 2015 HDR Contest’s grand prize is the Promote Control.  The Promote Control takes HDR photography to an elevated plane by giving your camera added capabilities.  It’s “HDR reinvented”.   The compact device sets your camera to shoot up to 45 automatic brackets with up to 9.0 EV step between shots.  It can even automatically step into Bulb for night HDR shooting.  Check it out at http://www.promote-control.com/

COLORIZE

We love the timeless feel of good black and white photography, especially from the golden era of photojournalism of the 1930s to mid 1960s.  You can often wonder what it would really be like to have walked the planet then (as some of you may have).  Those were the stiff upper lip times of depression, world war and the epic disruption of whole populations.  Add color to some of those vintage images and you’ll get one level closer to the feel of the era.  This collection of colorized images will take you there.  Spend a little time on each image and ponder.  You’ll be transported.  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1PXleS/ovJD-d9g:Qz8Gcw$_/www.lifebuzz.com/colorized-photos/

AROUND THE WEB

What Are The Chances – Idaho resident John Cassinelli lost his camera on Wyoming’s Salt River.  Two years later it was found.  Listen to this NPR piece to see if anything was retrievable   http://www.npr.org/2015/03/17/393646844/lost-camera-survives-two-years-submerged-in-wyomings-salt-river

History From A Different Angle – There are iconic images of important moments in history that are forever seared into our memories.  We often forget to realize that more than one image made at those famous events.  Get a different look at history here: http://goo.gl/TLy7Jr

Was That Taken With A Mobile Phone Camera? – Yes it was.  Apple is currently running an ad campaign that features really good photographs taken with the iPhone 6.  They’re worth a look.  But, keep in mind;  it’s the photographer not the camera that makes the magic.  https://www.apple.com/iphone/world-gallery/

Need Some Help Perfecting Your HDR Chops?  – Download our guide to better HDR photography “Five Steps To Great HDR Photography”.  It’s packed with useful info and it’s free!  https://unifiedcolor.leadpages.net/five-step-uct-homepage-download/

Download a free, 30-day trial of one of our industry leading HDR applications HDR Expose 3, HDR Express 3 or 32 Float v3 here:

HDR Expose 3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-expose-3

HDR Express 3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-express-3

32 Float v3  –  http://unifiedcolor.com/download-hdr-express-3