The Business Trip That Became My Best HDR Photo Series
A photography journey through Seattle's iconic landmarks and hidden gems, enhanced with HDR processing.
Note: this post had been originally posted in my blog many years ago. I am migrating some of the best posts here to FotogRAFia.
On the first week of August 2021, I got a work trip to Seattle, and of course, I brought my X-Pro3 with me. At the time, I was exploring a software called Aurora HDR, which has the ability of generating amazing HDRs from a single RAW, so I don't need to make bracketed exposures anymore, unless I am using a JPEG file.
Aurora HDR comes with some built-in presets that come super handy as a starting point. When editing, I usually load a preset that does not modify that much on the photo, and do my fine tune from there. When I see HDRs around, usually people exaggerate on the effect, transforming the image into something kinda bizarre and ugly. My approach to HDRs is to usually preserve what my eyeballs were seeing at the moment, with an extra of some spices, but that's why I like doing them at the very same day as the day the photo is clicked.
The Iconic Space Needle
Starting with the iconic Space Needle, this picture was taken when walking on the street with the 100-400mm, at a 400mm focal length. The results were majestic when I loaded in Aurora HDR and had it figuring out the best look by using its magic!
Seattle’s Great Wheel
Seattle Great Wheel, it's a big thing, we paid a ticket to get onboard, but the glass was kinda dirty and the pictures taken from inside the cabinets weren't as good as these ones, taken from the outside.
Exploring Bellevue
We departed to Bellevue to explore the beaches and surrounding areas, like a Botanic Garden. Bellevue is a very beautiful place with jaw-dropping landscapes and nature. We explored a bit over there before coming back to Seattle Downtown.
Chism Beach Park - Our Favorite Spot
Also in Bellevue, we found our favorite spot. A place called Chism Beach Park, where I took these pictures. My eyeballs simply were not believing the Sunset and location.
The Amazon Spheres
The Spheres (an Amazon office) is jaw-dropping. They have plants from everywhere in the World, and these ones highly deserved HDRs. Their size is something impressive, some of them are 4-feet long!
Seattle's Quirky Downtown
And because Seattle is peculiar, I took these in Seattle downtown. The drunk-and-tourists sign is at a place called The 5 Point Cafe. One thing that I loved doing was just walking through Seattle downtown and taking pictures of silly things. Some of them deserved HDRs.
Now, back to our usual film photography program :P