HDR Test

HDR, or "High Dynamic Range" is a type of photography that utilizes several images in order to create one image that captures as much lighting detail as possible. I have a tutorial up here that explains how to do this in Photoshop CS4. There are more popular programs out there, such as Photomatix, though I tend to not be fond of the output of such programs, as they often come off as being extremely unrealistic.

I'm testing out a new HDR algorithm; in the past, I'd never really found an HDR program that could render realistic output in storm situation or handle the fact that clouds tended to move between shots. I think this one is zeroing in.

This photo was taken on April 23, 2006, in central Kansas. In the foreground are storm chasers Amos Magliocco and Robert Hall.

Below is a screenshot of the individual RAW files used to assemble this image:


Interestingly enough, it's kinda amazing how quickly light changes at sunset and how dramatic a difference this can have on storm appearance. For example, the non-HDR image below (which I like more) was taken not long after the HDR image above, but it is completely different:

Rainbow Chasers

In honor of last night's episode of Storm Chasers, which finished off with a team of valiant "Rainbow Chasers", I give you a pair of Vortex 2 probe-team storm chasers (one of whom is the chasing legend Tim Marshall) driving under a freshly minted rainbow in western Nebraska, June 6, 2009. This high-based storm pelted us with some quarter to golfball sized hail (which made my windshield wobble with each impact), but was fairly tame otherwise.

Getting the Shot

Today's photo is from June 5, 2009, in Goshen County, Wyoming. Journalist Brian Pollack gets the shot of the developing tornado; you can see some the results of this work at the Weather Channel. This was quite a beautiful tornado; you can see more clips from this storm here and here and here.

Scanning through the wheat

Today's photo is of the CSWR crew setting up to scan a now LP supercell near Dodge City, Kansas, on June 9, 2009. This storm slowly died over the course of the next half hour, but it was darn pretty as it did it.

Who said science wasn't awesome?

Today's photo might be a repeat, but if it is, I'm repeating it because I LOVE IT SO MUCH. This was shot while covering Project Vortex 2 on June 5, 2009. In the distance, a tornado is rapidly closing; in the foreground, Tim Marshall (crouching, right) and Lindsay Bennett (crouching, left) are deploying a "Tornado Pod" -- a heavy probe loaded down with weather instrumentation designed to be dropped in the direct path of a tornado. They're in a hurry, as the tornado is less than 5 minutes ETA from this exact position, and they still have a couple probes left to deploy and get the heck out of there, with over 40 vehicles trafficjammed along the roadway also getting ready to pull the trigger on bugging out. To the left, you see Mike Tittel, a rather talented photographer, snapping away as well. To the right is a reporter and videographer for Lord-knows-who; the Discovery Channel and the Weather Channel and an IMAX crew were all permanent fixtures on this science mission, along with a handful of reporters from around the world who would drop in and out throughout the weeks. I guess what I love about this shot is the drama of it -- this is one of the only shots I took on the entire mission that captured just how incredibly awesome the work these guys and gals were doing really was.

You should be able to see this intercept later this year (probably on the season finale) on the Discovery Channel's show, "Storm Chasers". It was quite dramatic.