Getting the HDR effect

My results on a photo getting that sought-after HDR effect. In Picnik, you can create it without ever fooling with Photoshop. Lucky for me, because I don't have photoshop.

This rendering is a combination of Picnik effects.

I have experimented here with several different effects to achieve variations of the HDR effect.

And here is the original photo, below:

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Using Picnik

Picnik is an extremely easy-to-use online photo editing resource that is free. I do not have the paid version yet, but you can see what dramatic images can be created just with the free version in this post.

This collection of four photos was made into a collage with Picnik. There are many more options for creating collages in the paid version of Picnik.

This is an enhanced version of the original photograph of a man giving his dog coaching about what to focus on during dock diving, with the facilitator standing there smiling at them.

This is a comparison of the before and after images of a snap of the dock diving event I attended. The "before" image was good, but the "after" image has much deeper richer colors, and really brings the characters into the forefront.

The free version of Picnik includes HDR-looking conversions, which you can see in this shot of the green heron. The original was almost backlit, as the heron was standing in the shade with dappled sunlight on the grass in the background. I wasn't very happy with it; but the HDR image punches up the detail of the bird, and makes it more interesting. Here are more effects using the free version of Picnik to enhance that photo.

I would strongly suggest trying Picnik out to enhance your photos; the effects you can get even in the 'free version' of it are spectacular. And applying effects like this to a mediocre photo can bring you surprisingly good results.

Just with the free version alone, there are so many possibilities for combinations of effects, it boggles the mind!

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Summertime offers snapping ops galore!

Just about everywhere you turn, there is the possibility for another great shot. And if you don't seize that moment, it will be gone in an instant, but not to worry, another opportunity for a great shot is right around the corner!

The dog days of summer are getting shorter as the tires are rapidly squealing toward shorter fall days, but there are still many opportunities for snapping shots and improving on image-taking and image post production to correct white balance, etc.

White balance and color correction can easily be corrected in free programs such as Irfanview or Gimp. It's worth the time to evaluate and rank your photos and adding keywords, so they will be easier to find later. It's also very much worth the time to experiment with software until you find the one that gets the best results.

Photoshop may be the industry standard, but for the budding photographer like me with not a lot of money, photoshop just isn't an option. It takes time to learn, is not an intuitive program, and it's expensive.

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