Browsing Category Book Reviews

Quickie Book Review: Practical HDR by David Nightingale

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Doug Luberts

HDR, or high dynamic range, photography, is a technique that attempts to recreate the dynamic range of human vision (or at least a seemingly close approximation) by combining multiple, bracketed, exposures of a scene into a single image. It involves creating a 32bit HDR image and then using a technique called tone mapping, to fit the dynamic range of the image into a 16 or 8 bit space that can be interpreted by monitors and printers. Using HDR techniques it’s possible to create photo real images capturing detail from the lightest highlights of a scene to the darkest shadow details where traditional photographic techniques would not be able to handle the exposure latitude required to reproduce the entire range of values.

I started becoming fascinated with HDR photography a while ago, as an offshoot of seeing HDRI techniques used to create environment-based lighting for 3D scenes at work. It’s pretty cool stuff. So with newly-acquired advanced DSLR in-hand, I was eager to try some HDR techniques to see what kind of hyper-real imagery I might be able to create.

My first few attempts at creating HDR from bracketed sequences in Photoshop didn’t work out too well … and by that I mean they pretty much looked like ass. It was time to seek some advice from the pros, so I picked up a copy of Practical HDR: A complete guide to creating High Dynamic Range images with your Digital SLR, by David Nightingale.

This book is a great place to start … Short, to the point, and loaded with how-to’s that demonstrate techniques for creating both photo-real and hyper-real HDR images in a few of the most popular software packages available. The software and techniques discussed include Adobe Photoshop Extended CS4, Photomatix Pro, and FDR Tools.

The book also has a lot of high-quality photos of both the practical examples and other stunning images that illustrate the range of possibilities for using HDR in your own photography … Something that I find key in any “how-to” kind of book.

As previously mentioned, this book is a great place to start … It’s strength, in giving you a quick selection of how-to’s in specific software packages is also its weakness. You’ll get started quickly with a basic understanding of the mechanics of HDR, but there isn’t a broad foundation in theory or in-depth, general knowledge. For that you may (and I am) want to pickup a copy of Christian Bloch’s, The HDRI Handbook: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists +DVD, a much broader treatment of the subject.

So what did I learn? Well, a lot … Basically I’m throwing in the towel on using Photoshop to generate the HDR image, and picking up a copy of Photomatix Pro instead. I can use the Photomatix Lightroom 2 plugin to create the HDR and tone-mapped images, then use Photoshop for post-processing. There’ll be a blog entry further down the road with some of my own images. Stay tuned.

Book Blurb: The Avid Handbook by Greg Staten and Steve Bayes

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Doug Luberts

Seems I started a theme of essential texts for the beginning editor this week, and I’d like to conclude that with a book about the “other” professional editing solution (of which there are actually a number, but it’s mainly a Final Cut and Avid game, so I thought I’d throw out a little Avid love this evening.) The Avid Handbook: Advanced Techniques, Strategies, and Survival Information for Avid Editing Systems, 5th Edition. A book which there are several versions of sitting on my bookshelf, because I pick up each edition as its revised.

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Book Blurb: Final Cut Pro 6 by Diana Weynand

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Doug Luberts

Continuing to build on yesterday’s post about learning the craft of editing from books, we’ll take the next step and discuss a book that teaches you how to edit in a particular vendors editing package. In this case, Final Cut Pro.

It’s usually at this point in a conversation between editors where a religious debate ensues. Editors tend to be very passionate about their choice of editing software. Avid users, in many cases, would rather fight than switch. Final Cut Pro users feel the same way, except they have more time to talk about it since they’re so much more productive with the software than Avid users. I kid! (not really.) I’ve cut on several flavors of Avid, including the Media Composer, Adrenaline, and Avid DS, Discreet Smoke, Final Cut Pro, and, even a little bit of Premiere (although that was years ago when it was still a very young product.)

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Book Blurb: Inventing the Movies by Scott Kirsner

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Doug Luberts

I’ve been reading Scott Kirsner’s Cinema Tech Blog for a long time now, and enjoy the his perspectives on the influence of emerging tech on the film business. As a long-time lover of Cinema History, I was looking forward to his new book Inventing the Movies: Hollywood’s Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, since I hear about it.

As it turns out I had the opportunity to hear Scott talk about the book a couple of weeks ago, and finally got around to reading it this week.

There’s a lot of familiar ground here … Anyone who has studied the history of the Film business has heard the same basic stories about Thomas Edison, the Lumiere Brothers, the Warner Bros., etc., but with Inventing the Movies, Scott Kirsner takes a departure from the standard telling of the tales to look at Cinema History from the perspectives of technologies that have driven the industry, along with the individuals who have done their best to discourage, or even defeat, the adoption of new tech.
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Book Blurb: The Film Editing Room Handbook by Norman Hollyn

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Doug Luberts

As someone coming from a Film Editorial background, I’m often asked by people starting out what they should learn, and how.

Most folks tend to expect an answer regarding Avid or Final Cut Pro for the first half of the question, but I don’t think that’s the important part. It really doesn’t matter what non-linear system you learn on … Both Avid and FCP (and Smoke and Lightworks) have their pluses and minuses, and if you can drive one you can pretty much drive them all, with a bit of practice. What you really need to learn if you want to be a professional editor, is editorial standards and practices.

The best place for that, of course, is by working with an established professional assistant editor to learn “the system” as well as the craft. Outside of that, and studying at USC or AFI, one of the best resources around is Norman Hollyn’s book, The Film Editing Room Handbook, Third Edition: How to Manage the Near Chaos of the Cutting Room
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