May 6, 2007

First Day in Utah

It has been nearly 2 1/2 months and here I am writing about my first day @ Salt Lake City, UT.

Change is good, especially when you initiate it. Or atleast, better , accept and grow along. Change in location from Portland to Salt lake city was quiet exhaustive, with change in location, change in responsibilities and changes in my view of life !

Portland,OR with its year long pleasant (at times cold !) climate was in entire contrast with Utah’s climate. I read somewhere and laughed, but after being here for two months realized how very true it is

If u don’t like the climate , wait for 5 minutes ,

ur in Utah!

The place where I’ve moved – Midvale (probably denotes middle of the valley), is surrounded by snow covered mountains, they are just gorgeous. It is just wonderful to drive around. I were told that, Utah basically being a desert, turns really really hot in summer. Hope it is not too hot this year !

Watch out for my travel blog for travelogues around UT.

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January 17, 2007

Better know if ur after the coffee or the cup !

And btb knowing and not applying is actually not knowing at all in the first place.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."

"The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

– Anonymous

Posted in General, photography, sprituality | 1 Comment »

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January 9, 2007

iPod + Phone + Internet = iPhone

Steve’s speech had always been inspiring. If u were not among the lucky few who are currently at Mac World, then you might find this interesting – Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote by Engadget. Wish I could get hold of the video (on demand) during the coming days.

Update : Here is the Keynote (video) from Apple website.

As most of us expected and rumored, the iPhone (I thought iPhone was trademarked by Cisco or rather Linksys) arrives. Some of the interesting things to be noted are

  • iPhone runs on OS X
  • The device has just one button (Home button)
  • Built on Multi-Touch – a new technology being introduced by Apple (This video gets u a feel of what this tech could be)
  • Touch based interaction rather than an expected apple click wheel or regular stylus
  • Quad Band + Edge + WiFi + Bluetooth
  • Only 2 mp Camera (doesn’t Sony have a 3 mp and Nokia a 5 mp camera !)
  • Already partnered with major players like Google, Yahoo and Cingular

Though the closed model is successful for a number of reasons, it just makes one wonder on the number of applications that would be available on iPhone. With the power of OS X, it should be capable of creating any type of application on iPhone. But would there be any fun if apple is the only one, who could do it. Would be interesting to see how this market grows.

Update : Found this podcast at PodTech. It is part of the Keynote.

[odeo view=http://odeo.com/audio/5468353/view]

P.S : Did u notice that at the end Jobs, announced the change in name from Apple Computers Inc. to Apple Inc. dropping off computer. Is he not suggesting something here ;-)

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January 2, 2007

The Quest – HDR & Night Photography

I am beginning to like the combination of HDR and long exposures. If you have not heard of HDR u might want to check this, this and this.

I challenged if, the indoor (the bookshelf with the lighting), the street in the back and the statue with the appropriate lighting could be captured, with out being washed out or under expososed. After a couple of long exposure , I decided to go with HDR and this is the result. How do u like it ?

This marble state is in front of the Standard Insurance building, Portland, OR (pushpin 1 – wow this is amazing, u could see where this statue is located, Tx live) . Though this is named "The Quest", I read the locals call it "The Three Groins in a Fountain".

Not sure y this statue is so notorious , while most of the other art work at Portland get much applause.

P.S : when I was looking for some information on the above , Google , yahoo and live.com failed to return appropriate results for "Portland statue" "Portland white marble stature" "Portland nude statue" and all combination. I finally got the information I was looking for from Flickr. Yes Flickr !!! – the photo sharing site.

Though the same in Google Image search and Live Image returned one of two images of the above , those sites did not have much information. In some cases it was a cached copy.

On the other had the tag search in Flickr gave the most appropriate results. Once I got the name of the statue (converted it to text – "The Quest" from the above image) Google was the King.

Flickr (and most of the social networking sites) are building up so much data around them and have a great potential to deliver things the machines are not yet able to perform well. Looking forward to how Yahoo (yes if u r not aware Flickr is part of yahoo) would leverage this toward Image Search.

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December 8, 2006

Getting Noticed – Kicks ur ego

I have been featured at Best Blogs of WordPress. Really liked that way that the essence of the blog was captured. I think it was reviewed by Michael (not sure though)

Twins in the Wild


Think of Like the Ocean as something like one part photo blog, and one part technology blog with a dash of personality mixed in for flavor.
– Best Blog on WordPress – Unofficial blog review site for wordpress

Best Blog of WordPress – Thanks for featuring and keep up the great work. I found a couple of good blogs going through your site.

Thanks Tylor, for giving me a heads up on it. And folks, Keep visiting for interesting photographs and tech stuffs !!!

And btb getting noticed, does boost ones ego, atleast in a subtle way. Regardless, feels nice to be appreciated. Thanks.

Posted in General | 6 Comments »

December 7, 2006

Send CDs via e-mail – Pando

The other day while talking with one of my friends, realized that I had a a bunch of old instrumental melodies (carried from India) that he was badly looking for. He wanted it so bad, that he requested me to write a CD and mail it to him. What else could he suggest for a total transfer size of 700+ MB. Though I had a CD writer, I was very reluctant (rather lazy) to write the same to CD and physically mail it to him.

I was thinking if there was a better way of doing the same.There started my search for other available options. I came across a lot of file hosting services of which I were totally dissatisfied for various reasons.

And then came Pando to my rescue. Pando allows you to send really huge files and folders) of 1 GB to anyone (who has Pando installed) through e-mail. The simple interface of Pando is really good.

Install it , e-mail it, forget it. It was that simple. The service is free and comes as plugin for quiet a number of applications like yahoo and skype (though quiet surprisingly I did not find one for Firefox, mmm is someone working on it!). Additionally the latest beta allows you to post huge file(s) to ur blog or web (I am yet to try this part)

But be informed U need to have access to broadband. I really doubt anyone would even think of sending across Gigs of data with only dial-up, on the first place.

I had wanted to write about Pando for quiet some time , but has been postponing the same. Scoble made it easier by posting a video about the same @ Scoble show.

In the above,Yaron Samid, founder of Pando, talks about the technology behind Pando and shows how the same works.

P.S : He mentioned it is a enhancement of Bit Torrent, a kind of peer-2-peer technology. I was just wondering how transferring a bulk of data from one PC to just another would be effective using this technology. Bit torrents generally are from one source to multiple destinations (and the destinations act as sources). Or at least they are faster when there are multiple sources to download. Anyway’s it work fine for me, so I wouldn’t bother much for now.

 

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December 7, 2006

Leaves – All Seasons

 

In Spring the leaves, Are clean and bright.

They green and glow, In summer’s light.

In fall they turn, To red and gold.

Then curl up brown, In Winter’s cold.

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November 10, 2006

Reflections @ Hawthorne

My first try on Night Photography. It was a beautiful day, rather beautiful night. A walk on the willmate river @ Portland was always refreshing , but that late night stroll was entirely a rejuvenating experience

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November 8, 2006

A Different Face of Riya

Riya – a photo search company specializing with facial pattern matching have released a new product with a slightly different perspective (a major difference in business value).

The portal that came live around 12 AM (Nov 8,2006) is @ www.like.com. This seems to be one of the first portals to extensively use images as input to perform a search. Like.com takes in keywords and images to get the search results.

Though limited to a set of products currently, it is pretty interesting , to see the way u could perform ur searches. It opens up a brand new perspective to search. One could control based on the color, shape , pattern etc.

Have a look for urself. Pretty innovative and intresting.
Here is a sample text search for ‘Shoes with Wheels’. Impressive on the first look. mmm

P.S : I was personally hoping (and still wishing) Riya would improve on the facial recognition and probably provide with a offline utility to sort and categorize 10K’s of images on my local hard drive and automate tagging to a great extent. I feel Riya is in a special position to fill the void between the huge photo achieves on the local disks and the online photo services.

Update : Scoble has an interesting interview with Munjal CEO, Riya & Like @ ScoleShow. The story behind obtaining the domain name was interesting (somewhere in the initial 10 mins of the video).

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October 30, 2006

Night Shoot – Mt Hood

Each time I drove through I84, when I see Mt Hood standing so majestic, I wish at the least, I was not in the driver seat and at the extreme, was tempted to pull over at the emergency shoulder on the side of the highway and shoot out to my fullest the snow covered Mt. Hood.

I had always seen Mt Hood when I was on the way to somewhere and wanted to spend some quality time enjoying the splendor of the same. Hence when I first saw the ‘call for night shoot’ @ Flickr in PDX Ground, I was all game for it.

So yesterday several of Flickrites (Redgum, cinnabear100, outre, chief_dawg, WolfMana & myself) got together for a night shoot of Mt Hood headed by Redgum (Thanks a lot Redgum for putting it together). We drove to Trillium lake around 5:30 PM. Though the morning was bit foggy , the afternoon turnout to be bit more brighter.

The 15 second exposure limit on my S2 was bit restrictive, but still some of the shots came out good. Click on the picks to see a larger version @ Flickr, and here for a slide show.

Mt Hood Mt Hood from US 26, Pulled the car over the shoulder , ran across the highway and shot this. This actually is a HDR and I pretty much like the results
Mt Hood as reflected on Trillium Lake. It was around 7 PM and was quiet dark. Long exposure do create wonders. For a HDR version of the same check this out Reflections
Sunset ! Sun set @ Trillium Lake

The best part is I have never met the folks I went with yesterday, but it was fun, was a good team. Learnt new things, met some aliens, froze cold and got some good shots of Mt Hood. Meeting new ppl, learning their view and ideas, thank you Flickr for bring us all together (it is just not technology at the end, but how to make ppl use it).

Click here to see a VR Panorama of the view from Trillium Lake during daytime.

With the winter fast approaching , not sure of the probabilities of having one, but looking out for the next shoot out :)

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October 25, 2006

Get ur Zooomr Photos on WordPress Sidebar

Yes U read that right. U can pull all ur Zooomr photos into the sidebar of WordPress website. Of course, we still do not have a official Zooomr plug-in.

As I pointed out earlier, Zooomr API, seems to very closely resemble Flickr API (One of the reason for this could be to ease the transition from Flickr to Zooomr, if one prefers). That being said, thought would try to use the Flickr Sidebar Widget for Zooomr and bingo it worked.

Once U sign in for a Zooomr account (read this for y u should consider getting a Zooomr account), upload some of ur photos. In the ‘ Your Photos’ page, scroll down below to the RSS link. Copy this URL.

In the Flickr Widget paste this URL. UR all set. For an example to see this in live action take a look at my test site here. The one is the side bar is actually a Flickr Widget.

Now if only, we could have two occurrence of the Flickr widget (like the Text and RSS Widget) we could have one for Flickr and one for Zooomr.

I have sent the same via Feedback to WordPress Team. Would post here once I get any updates from them.

Update : There was no reply / Update from WordPress Team on the above request. It is quiet understandable. Zooomr has not yet released its API and probably WordPress was not intrested to make an option for something which is yet to be released. It would be really difficult, since tomorrow, the results of using zoomer using the Flickr widget might give different results. People here have no control over the same.
So what did I do – I used the Flickr Profile Builder for my Flickr and the Flickr Widget for Zooomr ;-). See my side bar -u can see both Flickr stream and Zooomr Stream [Use @ ur owe risk]. I felt, this was a good way to display both, till zoomer releases its API and someone developes a widget for it.

P.S : I feel that this should work the same, with Flickr Widgets / plug-ins that are available for self hosted WordPress blogs and other blog hosts too. But I have tested the same, only for blogs hosted @ WordPress.com. I feel this is due to the way that Zooomr is creating the API in the first place. Thanks Zooomr.


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October 19, 2006

The World as I see

I am a kind word uttered and repeated
By the voice of Nature;
I am a star fallen from the
Blue tent upon the green carpet.
I am the daughter of the elements
With whom Winter conceived;
To whom Spring gave birth; I was
Reared in the lap of Summer and I
Slept in the bed of Autumn.

At dawn I unite with the breeze
To announce the coming of light;
At eventide I join the birds
In bidding the light farewell.
The plains are decorated with
My beautiful colors, and the air
Is scented with my fragrance.

As I embrace Slumber the eyes of
Night watch over me, and as I
Awaken I stare at the sun, which is
The only eye of the day.

 
I drink dew for wine, and hearken to
The voices of the birds, and dance
To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.

 

I am the lover’s gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.
But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn.

– Poem by Khalil Gibran

I liked the poem, thought I really do not concur with the poet on the last para

Posted in photography, sprituality | 1 Comment »

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October 14, 2006

Multiple Inbox – Get ‘ em all in one Box

I remember creating my first e-mail (on yahoo) sometime before starting collage, that was 12 years back. mmm quiet a time :)

I have had a number of e-mail accounts (Internet based) from then. I have changed them (both the account and the host) due to many reasons like features provided by the new host, availability of username, need for free pop functionality, spam etc.

I still get e-mail on the first account I created, though I do not use it to send any outgoing mails. It is really difficult to drop a e-mail account(s) once you are started and well established with it.

The fact is, I have couple of e-mail accounts from different vendors and use Firefox to check all my e-mails. I have tried a couple of different versions of outlook, but almost always ended up getting only Hotmail to work.

Recently came across Thunderbird (if u do not know – it is a great imap / pop e-mail client). Installation was a breeze and the feature list is great. Yeah ! it works. Now I have all my inbox in one box.

I currently use Thunderbird to pull in my e-mails from Hotmail, Yahoo and Google accounts. Generally you would need a Yahoo! Plus for pop3 access. In our case the magic is done by Webmail. Webmail is a plug-in (or Extension) for Thunderbird that enable one to pull in a web based e-mail into Thunderbird. Webmail is available for Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, Lycos, AOL and mail.com. [If u do not see ur account here, then u might want to see if pop access for ur account is enabled, if so, u could still use thunderbird].

Below are the sequence of steps I followed to have my one box setup. All ver numbers are as of writing this article.

Installation

  • Download and Install Thunderbird from here (ver 1.5.0.7)
  • Download and Save the main Webmail Extension from here (ver 1.0.12)
  • Download and Save the Webmail for Hotmail from here (ver 1.0.6)
  • Download and Save the Webmail for Yahoo from here (ver 1.1.4)
  • Download and Save the Webmail for Gmail from here (ver 0.5.4)
  • Open Thunderbird and from Tools -> Extensions Install the main Webmail plug-in first. This has to be installed FIRST , before the ones specific for mail accounts.
  • Install the Webmail for specific accounts one after the other (U can restart Thunderbird, just once after you install all the above).

General Settings

  • Open Thunderbird , from Tools -> Extensions and select Webmail and click the Option Button.
  • Turn on ‘ Enable IMAP Server’
  • Restart Thunderbird
  • Open Thunderbird , from Tools -> Extensions and click the ‘ Find Updates’. A compatibility update might be applied

Setting an Account

  • Adding an account using Webmail Extensions is really simple. U do not need to know abt the port numbers and other specifics. The webmail page a quick guide to adding a new account. The same can be found here.

Issues I faced and Solutions

Continue to read this only if are having any issues else you can safely ignore this section and go to resource directly by clicking here.

–> Only few 10’s of e-mails were pulled when Inbox had several 100’s

U might face this scenario, if you had recently moved between to the latest beta version of the web-mail (After Google, everyone seems to be playing this beta stuff !!!)

If this is the case from Tools->Extensions select the corresponding webmail plug-in (in our case Yahoo!) .

From options select the appropriate mode production or BETA.

A word of caution though : I lost a bunch of e-mails by randomly switching between my classic yahoo and latest beta, while trying to pull in all the mails from my account to Thunderbird.

Hence if you are already on BETA , I would suggest

  • Use BETA Website Option, and pull all your latest mails
  • Make sure you take a backup of these mails
  • Switch to Yahoo! Classic (from Yahoo! Options)
  • Use the production Website Option in Webmail to pull your old mails.
  • Switch back to BETA on yahoo! (If ur lucky you would still have ur latest mails)
  • Switch to to BETA in the Webmail Option to proceed further.
  • Also make a note that some of the new mails (the ones received after u moved to BETA) might be duplicated again in Thunderbird

–> “Negative Vibes ” Message

U might get message like, ‘ local host responded with negative vibes while sending Password’. There a couple of things you could try to fix this

  • Make sure you have the domain name is included in the user name (xxxx@yahoo.com)
  • Sometimes this might happen when Thunderbird is trying to copy the mails from Junk Folder. Check the mails counts and if so , this can be safely ignored.
  • Go to Extension Panel (Tools -> Extension) and Click on Find Updates. U might see a message Compatibility Update Applied’. If you see such a message this action might make a difference and make things better for you.
  • Sometime this happens when the Mail server is not responding. You can check same by trying to connect to ur mail from a browser.

–> Local Host Not Responding

Not sure why this happened initially. When ever I tried to retrieve the mail , it would keep trying for a long time and give a message ‘LocalHost Not Responding’ . Restarting the PC resolved the issue for me. It was just that one time, it happened.

–> Miscellaneous

  • If you are having issues sending mail out from Thunderbird check if you anti virus or firewall is blocking the same. Some anti virus package might be pre configured to scan for ur out going mail. When I turned this option off on my NORTON, the issue was resolved.
  • Some times it could be ur firewall that is blocking the Application for accessing the Internet. Update options on the firewall to allow access for Thunderbird. It is NOT recommended that u turn off the firewall or Anti Virus just to allow Thunderbird access Internet.
  • If you have multiple Yahoo! or Hotmail accounts (like me), you would have realized that some times having two Yahoo / Hotmail Accounts might function without glitches. Using profiles (Start Menu -> Mozilla Thunderbird -> Profiles Manager) resolved the issue for me.
  • I have a Microsoft Live account that comes with its own domain name like xxxx@liketheocean.com. When I initially set it up it worked great. But after a couple of days it stopped working. Am in the process of trying to get it to work. If some one has any information on the same feel free to add it in the comments below.

Related Useful Links

U really do not need Webmail always (thought it makes things easier). It you know the POP / SMTP server details and have access to the same you could try configuring Thunderbird to access the mails directly. This link shows how the same can be done for Gmail + Thunderbird.

Mozilla Wiki is a good resource for steps on how to manage your account to ur Thunderbird.

A generic tutorial on adding any POP3 account with out Webmail.

Feel free to share your experience. If you have any additional information don’t forget to add them in the comments below :)

And if you found this useful, UR welcome to Digg MeDigg This

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October 10, 2006

Google Does have some BIG Plans

As the Google – You Tube deal is still hot on one side , Google today announced Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This is a online Word processor and Spread sheet application on the Web in a single place. There do have collaboration built into the same.

They take one step at a time (bought Writely and released Google spread sheets) , but sturdy quick steps. Writely was bought over during March. Spreadsheets was released in June and within next 3 months time they provide it as a single bundle.

For me this just seems like the tip of the ice berg. They sure do have some BIG plans and are really focused / moving towards it.

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October 9, 2006

HDR – Does it really require Multiple Exposure

I, as many of the folks, was under the impression that, to post process a HDR image , it would require multiple exposure or atleast a single RAW image (RAW images contains more information than JPEG, in that, it would be possible to extract shots with different exposure from a single RAW shot – I realized this from listening to Thomas Hawk @ ScobleShow)

But today when I was playing around with Artizen , was in for a pleasant surprise. I had just one jpeg image open and while going through the Menu (Modify -> Tone Mapping) saw the option ‘Tone Mapping’. It even automatically converts to 32 bit mode before applying ‘Tone Mapping’. I even tried converting a sample single exposure image to see the results (I tried some of the presets in the ‘pull down menu – TM Operator’ and settled for ‘Fattal’).

In the below you can see that one half was created using multiple exposure (three -2,0 and 2 xp to be precise) and the other was created with a single exposure (0) shot with Artizen. mmm quiet interesting results. Though the image from the single exposure seems to be washed out , I think it could be fixed with little post processing.

P.S : The only concern with Artizen is that it took nearly 10-15 for mins applying the Tone mapping on this below sample. Is it just this image or my PC that needs to be looked into :)

Artizen Photomatix

These are the multiple exposure shots used for the above post processing

So does it mean that we really do not need multiple exposure for creating a HDR. IMO (In my opinion) I would prefer multiple exposure. Before plunging into it lets gather some technical stuff here.

HDR – High Dynamic Range – as the name suggests is capable of storing high values of dynamic range. But most of the medium (lcd, crt or even print & paper) are not capable of displaying such high dynamic ranges. So to make these images compatible with the current mediums , a process called ‘Tone Mapping’ is generally used.

Tone Mapping – as read from wikipedia – Tone mapping is a computer graphics technique used to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in media with a more limited dynamic range. Print-outs, CRT or LCD monitors, and projectors all have a very limited dynamic range.

Hence, to me, the single shot stuff does not really enhance the Dynamic Range of the image and hence does not produce desirable results always. So as I said , I would still prefer multiple exposure for creating the HDRs, but again it would be on a case-by-case basis.

The Pros would be

1. Could be used with shots that contain action. Generally when taking multiple exposure, there tend to be some blur with the moving objects like the boy in this .

2. Could be used to take Panaromas. I found it extremely handy while trying out a HDR Panaroma. More on this later, for the time being u can refer to this shot .

3. U might not realize that a shot would be great for that HDR effect while composing the shot. Later if ur decide so u could always try with the single exposure u have (of course results not guaranteed ;-) )

The Cons would be

1. One does not create a HDR image, that could be later used to be displayed in an HDR Compatible devices (yes we do have some in the market like BrightSide)

2. Was not able to get ‘actual Range values’ [File -> Image Properties -> Dynamic Range] for the image created from a single exposure, since this is not actual HDR. But in many cases realized that the Range is not high enough, when created from a single exposure.

Note : If you do not have Artizen, the same can be achieved from Photoshop or other tools too. First use the single exposure shot. Play with the exposure setting to create two additional shots one with under exposure and one with over exposure. Then follow the same procedure to get the HDR effect.

Posted in photography | 4 Comments »

September 26, 2006

HDR – Tools and Technique

So HDR is all about making pleasant pictures, if handled appropriately. Let us delve into more detail as to how we could get the best out of HDR.

A quick searchfor HDR give a whole lot of material available online. I am not going to write one more tutorial, but thought it would be good to give the links to the stuff I found helpful.

Before jumping on the tutorials, some key points

  • No special camera feature if required for this. If you have a Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) Mode, it would be really helpful.
  • If you do not have a AEB Mode , look out for the Manual Mode. In manual mode you should be able to control the Exposure setting. If you neither have AEB nor manual mode, sorry u might be out of luck.
  • When using the manual mode (with AEB too), a tripod might be handy, depending on the length of exposure.

HDR (at least based on today’s digital cameras) involves two major steps

  • Use the Digital Camera to shoot the same scene with different exposure (minimum of 2 shots, better 3 – Exposure value of -2,0 & 2)
  • Use an appropriate software to post process these shots into a single HDR image and apply Tone Mapping.

IMG 6158 resize + IMG 6159 resize + IMG 6160 resize = IMG 6158 HDR Photomatix resize
Shots from Digital camera with different Exposure                       S/W Processing

The First Steps
To see how to take the multiple shots with different exposure, refer to ‘How do I shoot an HDR image?‘ in this FAQ from HDRSoft (quiet informative)

The Post Processing
A wide Varity of tools are available in the market for converting the multiple LDR (Low Dynamic range) Images to a HDR like Adobe Photo shop CS2, Photomatix from Hartford, Artizen HDR and I think even GIMPhas an option for processing HDR.

Out of all the once that I had tried, my favorites are Photomatix and Adobe Photo shop CS. Both of them have the ‘Align LDR Images before generating HDR’. It is really a amazing feature that could suffice for the absence of a tripod.

Here a detailed tutorialon how to use Photomatix for HDR processing and if ur interested in the the Photo shop stuff here it is.

Update:
Here is a exhaustive write up on HDR with both Photomatix and Photoshop.

Posted in photography | 8 Comments »

September 4, 2006

Seth on Compromise

Came across this thought provoking post, by Seth. Wow what a great way of conveying a message. Initially Seth really convinced me that, he has the same breakfast, almost everyday. Even, if he has (or he makes the same), I am least bothered (after reading his post), since that was not the actual message.

A good aphorism, wrapped up in something that every one can relate to, made this a great post to read, and of course think about !!!

If I ever need to make a compromise, It would never be on the point ‘less the compromise, better the work’.

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August 26, 2006

HDR – What the heck is it

Couple of days back, while enjoying the lovely shots @ Flickr, I came across this. It really got me locked, to know more about, making this kind of shot.

In layman terms, HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a post processing method, by which it is possible to get the different lighting levels together, in a single shot (which other wise is not possible with a normal camera).

It is interesting to note that this technique is getting mainstream, though it was predominantly created for Computer Graphics and Digital Games.

HDR In Action

Consider the below three shots, that were taken @ different exposure. All three shots had the below EXIF (Only the Exposure was different)
Exposure time 1/60 s + F-number f/2.7 + Max. aperture value f/2.7

img_4548_resize.JPG Exposure value 0.00 eV
In this shot with normal exposure, one could see the things inside the room and also, though a bit washed out, could slightly see what is out side
Exposure value -2.00 eV
This one with a -2 eV captures the outside scene, higher lighting) but the room gets more darker, one could not make out the things on the table		 img_4549_resize.JPG
img_4550_resize.JPG Exposure value +2.00 eV
This one with a higher eV clearly captures the room, but the higher intense (out side) is totally washed out

The beauty of HDR is that using the above three different exposures, one could build (post process) to arrive at a shot like below.

The Model Apt

It is interesting to note that the final (single) shot had clearly captured the coolness in the room (u could even note the table lamp glowing, the reflections on the shiny teak table, the crystal clear glasses, the details on the wall hanging) and the detail in the outside view (the construction happening, the river, mountains, buildings etc)

Click here to look at more of my HDR Samples
The Flickr HDR Group too has a great collection too.
Look out for further posts talking about the Tools required and the Actual Techniques of HDR and other Related Resources

Update :
Refer to this Post for Tools & Techniques on HDR
This one page summary on HDR is quiet informative

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August 7, 2006

What would u Decide ?

I got an interesting E-mail (rarely u do get some good stuff forwarded !!! )
It really does give a great insight into one’s decision making. This is how it goes

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. You could make the train change its course to the disused track and saved most of the kids.

However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Wait. Just take a sec and decide what you would have done in such a scenario, before reading further.

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child (were u one of them). Why? because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are.
The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The person who wrote the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens.

If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

How very true that at times we do not realize the importance of the day-to-day decisions we make. We are so much used to the system that we are not even aware, on what values our decision are based upon. Wake Up.

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August 6, 2006

The Search is On ….

It has been more than 2 months , I seem to have choked , even before starting (to blog).
I was just wondering, may be postponing this online stuff all these days were not due to pain in the tech , but may be just my lazyness. Or was it !!!!
These two months I was mainly bothered by two lines of thought, regarding this online blog !!!!

Do I really want to create an alias to myself or just go with the original self. I saw that I was totally aginst going by an alias, which would eventually build a virtual alter for me. Was there something to loose, going by my real self !!! As Scott McNealy points, ‘Your Privacy is already lost. Get over it.’.
The other one was , is this really adding value to what I am in search of …. the search for that something which gives meaning to your life. I realised that this would be a great window to the world, adding more values to my life, than the routine asks that I find difficult escape.

I came across a wounderful (blog) person , Scoble, while searching online for some stuff. The beauty of blogsphere – links – brought to my attention, a couple of more bloggers – people who by sharing their experince and learning make a difference to the world. I am learning that blogging if done in the right way, would help you build a network to learn / share experiences that would enrich everyones day to day lives.

So here I am , let us see how this round goes ….
BTB the Search is still on …..

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