Shot with a Canon 50D and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 at ISO 100 f/2.5

This is a 3 exposure shot tonemapped with Photomatix. The colour was not augmented in any way (i.e., no blue tones added or bumped in post-processing).

I originally thought it would be good to do this as an iPhone HDR comparison shot, but it’s just not a fair comparison. I’ll post the iPhone shot anyway, but the fact is, as useful as it sometimes is to get the extra light in shots with my iPhone, there are very few shots where it seems to have made any discernible difference.

I would probably attribute the lack of difference to the fact that, because I know how to shoot manually with an SLR and I think about light, composition, etc., when I take an iPhone shot, I’m already maxing out the light potential in the scene and positioning the camera for the best results.

The result with the iPhone is not a “bad” photo, but it will not have me abandoning my quick 3-exposure tonemapped technique any time soon. It came out very noisy, so here it is as-is (cropped to get almost the same view as the 30mm on my 50D):

iPhone HDR no post-processing

And here it is after applying Imagenomic’s Noiseware:

iPhone HDR + Imagenomic's Noiseware

More than anything, when I look at the above two photos, this seems a good sales pitch for Imagenomic’s Noiseware (which is, by the way, an excellent product)!

Here is another photo with the same effect from an office I was in the other day:

Both photos have also been further processed with CameraBag app, which is fabulous.

They just ended a about 10 minutes ago and, hot off the press, here are a few shots:

red in the distance: Edogawa hanabi/江戸川花火

Edo-gawa fireworks 江戸川花火

Edo-gawa fireworks 江戸川花火

And, of course, one of my black and white fireworks photos:

festival attendee with his two little friends on his shoulders

Speechless…

Middle of Tokyo.  No doubt they were smuggled here in a paper towel tube or something else. What compels..?

Anyway, as for taxonomy, will take a bit of research. Some type of lemur, but that’s as far as I’ll venture.

EDIT: See comments, below. Thanks, Dave, for IDing the “little creatures”. Definitely marmosets based on this Wikipedia picture. (By the way, Dave is the creator of the awesome KanjiBox app – get it!)

This is the main thing I love about living up high: I’ve become a real sky watcher. I’ve always loved looking at the sky (who doesn’t, really?), but I can’t say I was such a keen observer of the sky until I really got into photography in a serious way.

As your eye become more trained, little changes in light levels begin to leap out at you and you begin to see opportunities that exist for very short periods of time; there is a lot of carpe diem in the process or you miss an opportunity you might never have again.

I highly doubt, for example, that I will ever look out my window and see this again:

Giant cloud looms

So, this evening was, again, a dash for the tripod and the right lens with an excited cat weaving between the legs of the tripod and tripping me up (eager because he’s been alone all day and he thinks we are now playing a “chase-the-tripod-legs” game) in order to get a shot of one little patch of light almost directly above the towers that now flank Tokyo Station’s Yaesu Exit (click on photo for a better view):

Not quite night, as the city lights come on and daylight seeps through the clouds...

For the technically curious: 3 exposures at ISO 200; 30mm, f/11 taken with a Canon 50D and a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM (a kick-ass lens for the cost).

And this, by the way, is my lovely assistant:

Sumi the Russian Blue gawks - his usual "Who, me...?" stare

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