There has been a lot of talk about HDR imaging. It brings to mind one of my experiences. Back in July of 2008 Ann and I were heading for the Big Bend country of west Texas. We took the long way, driving due south to Del Rio, then heading northwest on Highway 90. That highway follows the course of the Rio Grande River. Along the way we go through Langtry, the home of the now deceased Judge Roy Bean, who ruled that part of the state for many year with his gavel and a six-gun.
A few more miles on, actually only 45 miles from Del Rio, we come to the confluence of the Pecos River, that flows from the north to join the Rio Grande. The Pecos River High Bridge rises 273 feet above the water. From that point, you can look south for a couple of miles, and actually see where the Pecos joins the Rio Grande.
It is a very desolate, hard, hot, dry climate along there, and the Mexican border is only a few hundred yards to the south of the highway. Nothing of any use grows there and the hard rock is only inches below the scrub and weeds. Nothing moves much either, except for the occasional Border Patrol vehicle. It is at a little turnoff that I took these pictures of the bridge and the river itself.
But I have gotten off the track of this story a bit. I had been reading about HDR imaging, so at this site I decided to take a series of bracketed photos to try out the procedure. The idea is to take three exposures, one under-exposed, one at the proper exposure and one over-exposed. I took about five of these series of bracketed images, intending to try the procedure out upon returning home.
Well, as things tend to do, all was forgotten. I forgot all about the images that I had taken – that is until this morning, as I was going through some more old stuff. I don’t think I had the proper software back in 2008 anyway. But now I do. I have PhotoMatix Pro.
These first three images are the three original images, exposed the way I explained above. The fourth image is the final HDR image after using that software. You can see that there is a vast difference from the original normal exposure. The greatest thing about it was, that it took only a few minutes using the PhotoMatix software.
Normal Exposure
Over-exposure
Under-exposure
Pecos River High Bridge - final HDR image
Okay, let’s show you another one. Same sequence.
Normal exposure
Under-exposure
Over-exposure
Pecos River High Bridge #2 - final HDR image
Okay, how about a third series, then we’ll call it a day. In this image, if you look to the left, or south, you can see the end of the cliffs. That is where the Pecos River joins the Rio Grande River. The land to the far left and top of the image is Mexico.
Normal exposure
Under-exposure
Over-exposure
Pecos River High Bridge #3 - final HDR image
That was fun. I hope you enjoyed looking at this amazing procedure. Well, I am heading back to the Big Bend this fall, and hope to get some more eye-popping images.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 