high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods.
Magic Lantern has developed firmware fad-on that will enable HDR video on Canon T2i (550D) T3i (600D) and 60D HD DSLR Cameras an it’s FREE! We’ve been expecting HDR Video Cameras to become the norm for years and this is a big leap in that direction. So much effort is going into 3D camera development that HDR isn’t getting it’s fair due. This firmware ad-on solution will likely turn a lot of heads and start a movement in the industry toward HDR video cameras development & design.
HDR imaging is a technique that combines images with a range of exposures to provide higher range of detail from shadow to highlight. Photographers were doing this manually long before digital imaging, but digital solutions make it much easier and feasible, even for video. HDR Video has been accomplished by using multiple cameras in the past, but I’m not aware of any mainstream solutions like Magic Lantern’s firmware will provide. The firmware switches exposure between frames and creates two videos which can later be edited back together to to create a single High Dynamic Range Video. Many advanced still photographers are accomplished HDR technicians. The thought of combining 30FPS Video is mind boggling but today’s computational imaging hardware and software is capable of such mind boggling feats.
Magic Lantern’s first firmware add-on enhanced the sound and video capabilities of the Canon 5D Mark II. Sadly, the HDR Video firmware ad-on will not support the 5D Mark II or the 7D. Below is a video outlining the capabilities of the Canon 5D Firmware add-on. This video explains how the firmware ad-on works.
MIT Media Lab researchers have created a high speed camera system that can capture images at a rate of one trillion frames per second. This high speed camera system can capture light traveling through objects. There are a multitude of scientific and artistic uses for a system such as this. For more on the MIT Media Lab visit their site http://www.media.mit.edu/.
The RadioPopper system allows the photographer to fine-tune the interplay between the existing light and the speedlights.
How the RadioPopper system works:
The RadioPoppers don’t add any functionality to the flashes. But they are essential to using the flash on location. This is because what the RadioPoppers do is to relay, via radio signals, the existing light-based (tiny quick pulses of strobe from the flash) communication system that the Canon flashes and cameras use.
RadioPopper system consists of a device that sits on top of the hot shoe-mounted Master flash and a separate unit that is mounted via an included plastic cradle to the Slave/remote flash(es). The Master flash fires a pre-flash each time you take a photograph and this pre-flash is the control signal to the other flashes. The RadioPopper system captures this preflash light/information, turns it into a radio signal, relays that signal to the RadioPopper receivers mounted to the slave flashes and these receivers then emit out that original master pulse into those slave flashes. The Canon slave flashes are tricked into thinking they received a pulse from the master flash. And it all happens as fast as 1/8000s. It seems like it wouldn’t work consistently. But it does.
Camera with RadioPopper sender unit. All my 580′s have the Honl speedstrap on them permanently as well as a tungsten gel. We built custom holding straps for the camera flash mounted sender.
Examples of our small strobe location lighting kit:
Left: Westcott 43″ Collapsible silver umbrella. We use this umbrella when we need maximum power. Right: Our setup for flare-oriented shooting during dancing.
Contents of our small strobe location lighting kit. I like the Manfrotto Nanostands for many lighting situations and it’s great that they fit right in the case! But we also bring 2 10′ heavy duty stands in a stand sling bag.
Example photographs shot with RadioPoppers and our small strobe system;
Being able to shoot TTL fill flash outdoors without worries of sync problems is great! So is shooting at high shutter speeds and wide apertures–here at 1.4 and 1/4000s !
Our experience with the RadioPopper system has been excellent. We have very rarely had any issues with the electronics. It really is like magic, especially when one uses the system with the 5DmkII and 1DmkIV and the 580exII flashes. When those items are used, you are able to control all your remote flashes with the menu system on the back of the camera. While it’s more complicated to turn the Master/Slave flash mode on and off than it is on the 580ex flash (the 580ex has a physical switch to do that right on the flash), it’s much easier to configure the settings with the 580exII. It’s great that it works so well, since one has virtually no understanding of why it isn’t working since it’s all wireless electronic hocus pocus.
Updates for DxO Optics Pro are now occurring more frequently in order to support more cameras and lenses as quickly as possible. Here is the latest news:
New for January:
The Panasonic DMC-GH2 and Sony SLT-A55 cameras are now supported.
165 camera/lens combinations have been added to the DxO Optics Module library, providing support for additional lenses from Canon, Nikkor, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Pentax and Sony for numerous Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, Pentax and Sony cameras. See the complete list
DxO Optics Pro version 6.5.4 will support the following cameras:
-Olympus EPL2
-Sony A580
-Panasonic LX5
Many camera/lens combinations will be added for these cameras as well for numerous other cameras already supported.
To access the list of supported camera/lens combinations as well as those planned for February and the ensuing months, follow this link and then select the 2nd tab: Supported and planned combinations
There aren’t really any meaningful Photoshop performance test’s (bench test). Photoshop utilizes computer resources based on so many variables that it’s difficult to tell what the bottlenecks are with a single Photohop performance test. The Retouch Artist performance test is somewhat useful and it’s a good start for devising your own test. I use Photoshop performance tests that are specific to the operations and file sizes that I perform repeatedly; like merge five 21 Megapixel images to HDR or smart sharpen a 50MB 16Bit TIFF. Merge to HDR is a hard drive intensive test and sharpening is CPU intensive. I’m using these tests to optimize my performance preferences in Photoshop and my scratch disks. The hardware test you use should be done on the file sizes you regularly use.
There are many commercially available performance tests that will give you a general idea of how hardware is performing. These bench tests are posted all over the internet (barefeats.com), so if you’re looking for performance information on a computer you don’t own, like a 2010 27″ iMac, there’s probably plenty of data about it online. Here are a couple of nice videos from TechFast Lunch that compare the Core i5 iMac with the upgrade core i7 iMac.
Apple’s 2010 27” i5 and i7 iMac models are a thing of beauty. We recently put one in the studio to use as a print server. I truly feel that Apple got it right on this one for the average user. We got ours from B&H Photo Video because the price is the same as Apple’s, but there’s no sales tax and their shipping is amazingly fast. I ordered on Monday and had it on Wednesday. The price point is acceptable for the outstanding features Apple has included. Here’s a quick rundown of the options and some suggestions for “pimping it out”.
The 27” display back lit display is excellent. It has the same resolution as my 30” displays and I really don’t miss those 3 inches. It’s supported by a robust video card.
The i5 processor is a good base model, but upgrading to an i7 processor for $200 is worth the money if you’re going to be using it all day for image processing. I found this example useful and here are some bench Tests:
The RAM modules are easily upgraded by the user, so I wouldn’t buy it from Apple. It uses DDR3 1333 SO-DIMMs which are usually used in laptops. G.Skill has an excellent selection of products that will do the job and it’s cheaper to get it with the minimum and even replace the existing memory if necessary. Again, 8 gigs of ram is a good base, but if you’re doing image processing all day, then 16 gigabytes is what you need. We bought our GSkill mac ram from Newegg.
Hardrive space is the real weakness of the iMac models. There are a few solutions to the problem, but it’s a little complicated. Inside the machine, there are three total SATA II connections. The stock model has room for one full size 3.5” drive and one 2.5” SSD drive. There’s also one external firewire 800 port. This is the place that the 2010 iMac 27” models need to be pimped out the most. Here are the options for configuring drives:
Stock from Apple: you can get a 1TB or 2TB($150 upgrade) 3.5” drive and also have a specially mounted SSD. They don’t include the special mount unless you order it with a SSD. You can also get your iMac with 2 SSD Drives and no spinning drive. The 1TB and 2TB drives are either Western Digital or Seagates, you can tell which one you got by the serial number on your iMac. There are some issues with how the fans work if you replace these drives with another model.
Replacing the drives inside of an iMac is a bit tricky, but it is possible. Here’s a good tutorial on the process from ifixit. I recommend leaving this to the professionals at OtherWorldComputting. My recommendation for upgrading hard drives on a 27”, to make it an image processing workstation, is to ship it to OtherWorld and let them configure it the way you want. They have excellent SSD Drives that use the SandForce SSD controller. Here’s what they offer as options for utilizing the three available SATA II connections:
#1 Move one SATA to the outside of the computer. I highly recommend doing this, because the connection will be roughly twice as fast as the firewire 800. You can then connect eSATA hard drive enclosures. Unfortunately the eSTA enclosures will not be hot swappable. You will need to shut down your iMac to switch from one enclosure to another.
#2 Replace the internal DVD burner with a SSD. You would then need a USB II connect DVD burner, but they are cheap ($40) and work fine. This is a great option because you can have an internal SSD and an Internal 3.5” Spinning disk.
#3 Replace the internal 3.5” with a SSD or a bigger faster 3.5”
The hard drive configuration you choose should be based on the kind of image processing you do. My general recommendation is to replace the DVD with a 240GB SSD and run the OS and programs off of that. I would also move Adobe Lightroom Catalogs and “working” files to that drive. Next, I recommend a 2TB drive in the 3.5” bay and an eSATA modification. The eSATA is the only way to really get the hard drive space necessary for a large archive of images.
That sums up the options you have in configuring hardware on a 2010 iMac 27″. It’s a solid performer and it looks right at home in a photography studio.
Michael Stewart is a digital photography expert and educator. He consults on computational photography and tech edits for digital photography standards projects (UPDIG, DP-SAW) and digital asset management books(DAM).
He is currently testing computational photography software and lecturing on photography technologies.
Michael's Portfolio: StewartImage.com
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Tutorials
Lynda has many excellent digital photography software tutorials.
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B&H is an excellent place to purchase digital photography and Video equipment. They have it all!
I buy all my computer equipment from NewEgg. They ship extremely fast and have an excellent exchange and return policy.
Amazon is not only a great place to buy books, but a great place to do comparative shopping. The Amazon system allows you to compare vendors products, and still the Amazon safe and easy system to purchase the products.
B&H is an excellent place to purchase digital photography and Video equipment. They have it all!