My very good friend Mark came over on Sunday with his new Corvette and I managed to get some HDR Photos with my Sony Nex-6 and the DSC-RX1 I just reviewed Here>>.  I asked Mark if I could take a few photos, because why not take advantage of having an awesome car to pose and take pics of? Plus I still have the RX1 and I was curious how it would handle some HDR Photography processing.

I did not bring a tri-pod with me unfortunately, so all of these HDR Photos are 3three exposure hand-held frames.

I used the widest bracketing option available on my Nex-6 and the RX1 which was 3EV, meaning -3,0,+3 would be the exposure’s produced. I was shooting raw and raised the ISO a bit so the +3EV photo had a fast enough shutter speed to no be blurry. Normally I would leave the cameras on ISO 100, because I would use a tri-pod. A tri-pod and remote shutter is the proper way to do the job, but you can get excellent results handheld thanks to the awesome image stabilization, and aligning tools in the HDR Processing software. In my case, Photomatix Pro 4.

Sony Raw Files VS HDR Photography

Here are the three raw files my Nex-6 captured for the first image that is the feature photo above, but is also below in a higher resolution form 😉 You can see that the brightest +3ev exposure is totally blown out, but it has most of the shadow detail captured. Then on the darker side we have most of the bright sky detail captured. In the middle at 0ev we have the compromise standard exposure that is really not very good for anything as is.

Be sure to Click on the Photos for the Large ~1200px Versions!

Now, if you blend all three exposure’s using a program like Photomatix you can get some cool results like this HDR Photograph. Using the 55-210mm e-mount lens, I was able to get a much better perspective of the vette, in my opinion, by moving way back and zooming into 167mm. This makes the car look much leaner and low to the ground. It also allows the for the large distance of road in the foreground to blur out creating an inviting pull into the image. When you look at the next image, you should be able to see what I mean more clearly 😉

Be sure to Click on the Photos for the Large ~1200px Versions!

Here’s a wider angle using the 18-55mm kit lens and Nex-6, which allowed for sky to be added into the frame. The wider angle certainly allows for more sky, but also introduces a little distortion into the scene. In this case it looks pretty cool, but I still prefer the farther away zoomed in look personally.

The Sony RX1 also did a good job, but was a bit more wide angle than I was looking for to be honest. The wider angle did make for a super dramatic sky however. I also found it a bit harder to hand-hold steady using the screen as apposed to the viewfinder on my Nex-6. A tri-pod was really needed I’ll say again 😉

This last image was also taken with the Full Frame RX1 and offers a wide angle view with lots of hood. Note how the distortion seems to stretch the hood making it look even longer than it really is.

Be sure to Click on the Photos for the Large ~1200px Versions!

The Ride in the Corvette

I must tell  you about the ride we went for, because it’s the fastest car I have ever been in acceleration wise to date. We only went up to maybe 90-100mph, but man did we get there in a hurry. The Corvette cruised along like a normal pretty stiff riding car and had some nice torque when leaving traffic lights and stuff like like that. However, when my buddy Mark dropped the Hammer down I was totally blow away! Mashed back into my seat harder than I ever recall, and the roar that the engine made was incredible. It was a completely different car than we were just in 10 seconds earlier, let me tell you! An absolute monster of an automobile. The tires barley spun and just hooked up raising the whole stance of the car in the process. With the engine at full toque, the car is loading the entire chassis with a tremendous twisting force. The Corvette just focused all the power down to the pavement like a race car. My 1000cc Yamaha FZ1 was a bit faster 0-100mph, but only with perfect clutch execution. Needless to say, the ride was fun and I did take it for a little spin myself. I went easy on her though. Not my car and it was a bit hard to shift quickly with a tight gearbox.

It’s a 1999 Corvette if you were wondering, and apparently has a cam with some other minor tweaks. Mark is going to hook it up more though he promises and I will bring the GoPro next time 😉

Closing Remarks

That is about it for now, but for more detailed tutorials on how to process HDR Photographs, be sure to check out my detailed HDR Tutorials Area (Click Here)

Beyond that, I have the New Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 lens and the three Sigma E-Mount Art lenses to review 😉 I currently have the Zeiss mounted to my Nex-6 and it looks and feels really well made. Very heavy and old school Minolta lens like in weight. The Sigma lenses are also pretty nice although not near the same build quality as the Zeiss.

More to come on the Zeiss and Sigma lenses. I actually think I might do a rolling review for both and just add sample pics as I take them, saving the conclusion for the end. Makes it easier for me, but not necessary the best review format, because often you will have to come back to see updates rather than it just being done. Still not sure what I’m going to do, but stay tuned!

Catch up with you later,

Jay