Toronto Photography Meetup Group

A small soft pair of slippers that can fit in your pocket might be easier. But the idea is clean dry feet walking on the carpets and wood floors Im sure would be appreciated by the staff.

Thanks David,
That was pretty neat!

Yes, David, a big THANK YOU!

That was a great place to try out and the staff there are so nice and friendly!

Thanks David for organizing! Great time at both locations - I will never forget the bedroom scene lol

Neither will I ! Pam has a shot of the bedroom scene ...

Good time for all. Possibly a better time for Sapna!

Thanks David for organizing the event.

DG

Thanks for organizing it all David. It was great.

Sapna -- Pam has a picture of the bedroom scene -- now that could be interesting,... will it match the comments?

Hahaha yes yes it will!

Thanks again, David, for organizing this outing once again. While I've had the chance to shoot houses a couple of times in the past, this type of house definitely had its own challenges and getting pushed outside my comfort zone was great. Here is a small sample of some of the shots I got.


Stairs by qualdoth, on Flickr


Winding Down by qualdoth, on Flickr


Home Comfort by qualdoth, on Flickr

Thanks guys to all who came! It was quite a successful shoot slippers or not

Spadina Memories by lxdesign, on Flickr

Processed my fav's from today... now on flickr.

Here is a nice walkaround the main floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPbkIicYEE

Thanks David, it was lots of fun.

My camera has decided not to load to my Mac anymore, so I'm doing an annoying workaround. Hopefully I'll get it fixed before the weekend.

Without a doubt the toughest panorama Ive ever made. The 10mm lens made it almost impossible to fit two images together. Each image was a 9 shot HDR.

I have a quick question - what program does everyone use to do HDR? I would like to process my images from that day in HDR but currently do not have any program - other than photoshop elements. Thanks

J.

Photomatix Pro 4.1 Check my PM to you.

I think I got the colors more correct this time.

Thanks for the info Bynx,

I have been looking around and their are three HDR programs that have plug-ins that work with Aperture - Photomatix Pro, HydraHDR and Nik Efex Pro. I have to say the Nik software looks really interesting. They all cost around the same amount $100. Any opinions on which is the best bang for my buck?? Thanks.


J.

I use HDR Pro. I am not familiar with the other choices. HDR Pro is OK and works seamlessly with PS and LR. I would post something, but can't seem to post from Goggle+.

DG

Beautiful HDR one of the best I've seen for a long time.

Never mind. Back to the drawing board.

DG

Thanks Metrix. I really like shooting there. Cant wait to go back again. Next time it will be for the details.

To The Balcony! by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr


Main Stair by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr


The Mantle by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr


Going Up! by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr


Eternal Protector by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr

I'm not a great fan of HDR, but figured I'd give it a try here and there:


Piano HDR by ofermod, on Flickr

I must say that the only thing I like is being able to fill in all of the white windows. I didn't always have the right exposures to fix them all, and could not manage the garish cartoon look I don't like. I'm using mostly three exposures, but often finding that two are enough for what I want.

I'm doing them el-cheapo and without a lot of tweaking via the Gimp.

Still have a roll of film to finish and process with a few more shots.
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyhtp3g

The fun of modern camera's and shooting in raw is that more often than not, if you get one or two good exposure shots then you can step up/down in post to give you the exposures you need for HDR.
I find that this method of shootings forces you to pay more attention to what you are doing too and ensuring that you are paying attention to the light and your settings.
It also helps to eliminate the oh-so-frequent cartoon-ish look that you elude to.

I am not a fan of the over-cooked look in HDR either .... and whenever possible I try to avoid it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I'm thinking of switching back to spot-metering. I think the last time I tried that was the last time I was at Casa Loma. Another way of avoiding the D80's weird matrix metering without buying a D7000.

If I'm concerned about window blowout I generally switch to spot or spot+, meter it and then adjust/shoot.
But I don't think as much about catching 8 stops in a photo as some of the HDR enthused folk are.
If the detail suits the shot I want, I evaluate it then.

For all the haters having the "over use of angles" conversation:
I bite my thumb at thee!


For The Haters by CrimsonDesigns, on Flickr

Not to mention, that latitude captured in a RAW file in today's cameras is forgiving enough that even if you blow the highlights a bit, you can generally get some of the detail back by bringing the highlights down.

Here is my contribution to the HDR action. This was processed in HDR Pro from 5 photos.



DG