A little experimenting...

I love HDR (High Dynamic Range Imagining) and I recently got a book about it from the library. But I didn't read it and then I had to return it. So I didn't really know how to do it or understand it fully. I still don't. But I did a little reading and basically it's make more use of light in a photograph to get more definition. (Dynamic range). The other night when I couldn't sleep I started thinking about this and decided I had a great image to experiment with. Here's what I did.

First I started with my original image. In PSE I ran an under expose and over expose action on it. I used Ren's Actions for this. I saved them each seperately as under and over and kept them open.

Next, I opened my original again so I had all three images open in PSE. Then I created a blank file the same size as the other three. I dragged each image into the new file creating three layers. I brought in the under exposed first, then the regular, and then the over. So the layers were as follows from top to bottom. Under, regular, over and blank background. I could have dragged the over and regular to the under file but that's now how I did it.

In the new file I changed the blending modes of each of the layers. I made the over layer soft light, the regular layer pin light, and the over layer hard light. These make the layers transparent but still leave the color in tact and add a little... something. I don't have a manual right now so I can't tell you exactly what each of those modes does. But the soft light is a little brighter and the hard light is a little darker. Then I flattened the image and below is the result.

Here is the original image. SOOC.

Here are the layers side by side.

And here are the layers with the blending modes applied before they image is flattened.

It was a fun little experiment that I had pretty good luck with and took me relatively little time. This is not always the case with my experiments in PSE! If you want to see more HDR photos go to flickr and put HDR in the search field. There are some great images. Owen and I looked at some really cool diggers in HDR yesterday!

On another note, we've been having a terrible time with Owen at bedtime. He goes to bed late and then he's in and out of his room a bunch of times. We've had the same bedtime routine with him since he was about 3 months old. He has a night light, he has a fan for some white noise, he has his blankets and Elmo and a bear. He takes a nap everday just fine. We've tried to explain that he needs sleep to grow and play but he's two so how much of that makes sense!? Anyway, tonight I had had enough. Morgan had laid with him for a bit and then I came in and laid with him. I left after about 5 minutes because he was grabbing my nose and being a pain. 5 minutes later he comes roaring out of his room screaming. I asked him what was wrong and he just laid down on the floor in the hallway. So I told him he either got in bed or he went to his corner in the living room. He ran off to the corner with dee-dee (his blanket). But before I got there I took dee-dee and told him if he wasn't going to go to bed he couldn't have dee-dee. This is the rule of the corner. No dee-dee, no books, no toys. Just Owen. He was not happy about this. I told him if he could have dee-dee when he decided to go back to bed. He got this loud and clear! When I asked him if he was ready to go back to bed he said yes and followed me and dee-dee back to his room. He climbed into bed, I covered him up with his dee-dee and big dee-dee (another blanket) and he went to sleep. HOORAY FOR MOMMMY! (insert victory dance here) I won a round with the two year old! Yes Mom, I know I'm bigger, older and smarter. But somedays it doesn't feel like it!