Pro Photo Podcast #57. Photography with Trey Ratcliff

[Gavin Seim]

It's live folks. Trey was really fun to have on.

http://www.prophotoshow.net/blog/2009/04/14/pro-photography-podcast-57-photography-hdr-with-trey-ratcliff/

[bksecret]

Trey was great.  No big ah-ha moments of discovery for me, but some confirmations and great tips.  I too ignored everybody's work focusing on my own approach for three years with exposure control.  His style is not my style, but would be one boring world if we all liked the same exact thing.

Also, Pocket Wizards have been great for years, but the new items are yet to live up to the hype.  So don't lump them all together as one product, they make different tools for different needs.  I have yet to find anything that fully replaces my Plus II's.

Great show!

-Landon

[Gavin Seim]

Thanks L.

I know the plus series PW's have pretty good reports. I'm gonna do som testing on Radio Poppers and then we'll bring up the topic again on another show. I'm a bit miffed that PW would ship such a bogus product, but I want to be fair with them.

[Triggertom]

Great show, Gavin. Trey had some interesting perspectives on HDR.

Also, thanks for doing the homework on the Pocket Wizards for me. I too have been waiting for the new minis as I have 2 Pocket Wizard IIs already.  I fact I just went out and bought a new canon 580EX2 to be used in concert with my 430 and PWs.  This has got to hurt PW's reputation and it would seem that they will take steps to fix this problem if they want to continue to be trusted.

Once again, great show.

[Gavin Seim]

Thanks.

As for PW, they've already lost my trust. Their excuses are unreal.

"Well the 580EX & EX2 interferes with out system. Regrettable but just how it is right now"

I'm like. Are you guys kidding. YOU are selling a product to work with the pre existing canon system.

Their gonna have to do some serious work to win me back. Especially if Poppers come as as good as I've heard.

[bertpalmer]

A really interesting show and I was interested to hear some of the techniques Trey uses to make his HDRs look more natural. This is something I struggle with a little so I'll be looking in to masking. I guess it confirmed that HDRs are more work that I thought they were!

Still the photomatix LR plugin makes life a little bit easier now.

[Gavin Seim]

Ya the LR plugin really helps with the workflow

[FullMetalPhotographer]

A very good show, I learned a lot about HDR. I am going to have to give it a try as soon as i can afford the Hardware. I just can't afford a D3x yet.  I gained a better appreciation of HDR. I enjoyed your treatment of this complex subject.

[Gavin Seim]

Sweet glad you got something from it. You don't need a D3X for HDR though. Most of my best stuff was just made with a 30D

[phazelag]

This was a great show.  And this is probably a newbie question, but I have noticed that Photomatix seems to do way better with my bright light shots.  The low light shots I have been getting look great prior to photomatix, but then I am having trouble salvaging them. I know there is less light to work with.  But do you have any thoughts on Low Light HDR shots?

[Gavin Seim]

Low light can be tricky. Often masking to that base layer a we talked about in this show helps. AN HDR often gets artifacts and noise that a single frame does not have. BY matching and carefully masking the single frame you can often clean up. Also check the HDR archives on the main sire. You might pick up some tips there.