HDR.

A new toy for Harry? Hell yes.

No, not some expensive shiny thing, nor anything all that nerdy, HDR is something I'm going to be messing around with quite a bit for the next few days.

HDR for those not "in the know" is a "High Dynamic Range Image". There's alot of mumbo jumbo involved in the explanation that I won't bore you with (and that I only begin to understand myself), but essentially whenever we take a photo we lose tons and tons of information. Especially so when there are extremes of light and dark, since the camera can only capture so much information, inevitably you will end up with parts both too light, or too dark, or even both.

HDR imaging attempts to circumvent this problem by having you take not one, not two, but THREE images (or more!) of the exact same thing, although each one with differing contrast levels.

So, lets say you want to take a picture of something with shadows and a bright sky behind it. First take it at -2 contrast. The shadows will lose all the information in them and only be dark, and much of the picture will be far underexposed. However, the sky should be allowed to come into a much better contrast range with much more information contained within it. Then you take another picture at a normal exposure range. This means the shadows and the sky should both be a bit underexposed/overexposed respectively, but the majority of the image should contain good information. Then you would take a picture at +2 contrast. This means the sky would be almost completely devoid of information, and most of the picture wil be overexposed, but the shadows should be nicely exposed with plenty of information contained in them.

Now, these photos have to be taken without the camera moving virtually at all so everything lines up. Then, plop them into some HDR imaging and it will pretty intelligently work through and find the best information from all three pictures! haha!

From here you still have to mess around with the values and information for awhile (since computers have no sense of what looks good), but this way you get lots of info in the shadows, mid points and the sky as well! Yay!

if done moderately this can just lead to the picture looking that much more "real". If done a bit more the picture can take on fantastic qualities that look almost like another world.

Also HDR imaging contains far far more colors and information than even the computer screen can accurately display, and if performed on a "true color" monitor can pretty accurately depict the light you might see in the real world, something most photos can only dream of doing.

In aany case, I find this to be pretty interesting, so I'll be sure to try and make some good examples over the next few days.

(Disclaimer: I've only been doing this for about an hour. I'm sure I'm doing it all wrong. But that's ok. Ok?)



Ok. here's a photo I took awhile ago at tskuiji. Because the light outside is failing I will have to do with a "fake" HDR image. I will take this and then make two other versions, one at -2 exposure, and one at +2 exposure. Because I shot in RAW mode this will emmulate the actual shooting environment to a somewhat ok degree. However, although this will demonstrate some of the benefits of HDR, it is not "true HDR". This is because it is not actually increasing the high dynamic range, but it does allow us to see some more information that wouldn't be available otherwise. Ok.

Now here's the same photo with some faux HDR going on.



As you can see things that were previously almost wiped out are clearly visible. Also contrast is increased, and unfortunately, so is noise.

However, if I actually shot three pictures I could do so at a much lower iso, and the end HDR result should have *far* superior amounts of information.

But in any case, cool shit HUH?
...

...

OK!

So, although I just spent a few pages ranting about something I'm sure you don't care about at all, alot of very nice things have been happening here in musabi land!

The classes I'm taking are all pretty awesome (if just a bit strange from a pratt stand point), the teachers are all very nice (and actually seem to like the cute/strange shit I make. haha.), and the students all seem to be enjoy the fact that I'm there taking classes with them (yay).

I also finally know my way around campus, which is impressive considering it is far bigger than Pratt and built like a strange concrete/organic labyrinth.

I'm also constantly happily impressed with how serious all the students seem to be about their work, but seem to do so in a very relaxed and enjoyable way. They work hard, are talented, but recognize that it's what they want to do and seem to be happy for whatever opportunity they get to express their creativity.

Also... the differences between Japan and America continue to amaze and confuse me!

On one hand we have so much in common that it is easy to see a complete blending of cultures and ideals. On the other there are deeply ingrained ideas of societal behavior in Japan that at times to make almost no sense.

Some examples. Japanese subways get *very* crowded. At many points during the day. The Japanese subway system is amazing, but there is simply a ridiculous amount of people trying to use it. So Tokyo denizens have gotten very used to being squished in with other people. This makes sense, and is completely understandable.

What *does not* make sense to me is the fact that when people want to exit or enter the train, the people in the doors will often times *REFUSE TO MOVE*. ??? WHY? They won't lose their space, they could just sidle back in afterwards?

Also, nobody exiting or entering the train gets mad at these people. They seem to be viewed as just another obstacle in life, and so the exiting/entering people will PUSH as hard as they can to get by.

The other day I was in a crowded train and had to get off at my stop. This was a popular stop so about 70% of the train also had to get off. Standing in the doorway were two highschool girls. I swear to god they were literally bracing themselves against the flow of traffic, trying as hard as they could to fight against the tide. In the end they were blown backwards out of the door as the sheer surging force of humanity crushed whatever resistance they had tried to put up.

nobody complained while this was happening. The girls didn't. The people trying to exit didn't. Nobody even seemed bothered by it. It was simply what had to happen.

Another very strange thing is the love/hate relationship with western foreigners. On one hand you have a huge amount of people trying to imitate western culture, eating western foods, and learning western languages. People always seem fascinated with the fact that I'm from New York, tell me how much they want to learn english, and seem to have some very idealized views of america. (they do hate bush pretty consistantly though).

however, many places seem to be designed to keep foreigners out, other places only allow foreigners in if they have a japanese friend with them, and still others may refuse foreigners completely!

It's a strange dichotomy of current japan. They wish to embrace the new and the foreign as much as possible, trying to absorb it into themselves at a fantastic rate, but at the same time there is a rejection of change and outsiders completely, people trying as hard as they can to hold onto an older simpler style of existance.

I understand where both sides are coming from, but it's still a bit of a trip to observe both in action in virtually the same place.

...

...

wow, I just realized how much more I have to say about classes, trips, food, etc etc. Um. I need to update even more huh?

Ok, I'll leave those other thoughts for another day.

RANDOM PICTURE ENDCAP.