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  • High Dynamic Range Photography of Museum Aircraft

Has anybody tried using High Dynamic Range photography techniques to photograph aircraft in museums? Given the less than ideal lighting indoors in a museum I'm wondering if it's worth hauling the tripod along to try it.

In a HDR shot you set your camera up in AEB mode (Automatic Exposure Bracketing) and then post process the three images with software that has algorithms that combines the over and under exposed images.

I'm going to the Museum of Naval Aviation on Sunday so I'm probably going to give it a try.

Here's a link if you want to read more about how to do this:

http://www.naviquan.com/page/hdr

Hi Timothy,

I met someone here in the Denver region that has worked a great deal with HDR.

I think he has worked a bit with Museum lighting, but I am not sure what success he has had.

www.Toypix.net

He might be able to answer some questions for you regarding the challenges.

Best Regards,

Timothy,

You will find that museum pretty well lit-white epoxy floors, good lighting and some high windows, as i recall from my November 1990 trip. As a side trip from business at Eglin AFB where the USAF excused the Navy reps for the afternoon, I didn't bring a camera-my loss. The USN Navy officially does not operate museums-so the National Museum of Naval Museum at Pensacola is part of the Smithsonian Institute museums. (The USN does encourage and allow Command History Storage Facilities, however, somewhat of a euphemism). Point Mugu has a good one for USN air-launched missiles, open most Thursdays.

A excellent elderly volunteer docent at NMNA told me he learns something from every group briefing, because of the aviation backgrounds of many of the visitors. The aircraft carrier Ready Room on the second floor was a welcome break with comfortable seating. Consider getting a copy of the Aircraft Collection at the Museum store-it is a great well-illustrated inexpensive pub and fact-filled.

I would check with the museum to see if they permit tripods. You'll find that many do not due to liability concerns (i.e. other patrons tripping over the tripod legs).

I've done some limited HDR work, but not of airplanes. My preferred applications is Photomatix from HDRSoft.

Hey guys, it's the National Naval Aviation Museum now. They changed the name (again) a while back. Funny that the picture of the front of the museum that is on their web site still has the previous name though.

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

The following is from the museum's web site under Governance.

After spending the first 44 years of its existence as a shore command under the auspices of the Chief of Naval Air Training, the National Naval Aviation Museum opened a new chapter in its history in October 2006 with a realignment that placed it under the administrative control of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., which serves as the official history program of the United States Navy. The National Naval Aviation Museum is part of the Navy’s museum system, the largest of 12 official Navy museums located throughout the United States.

25 days later

Here's a few examples of HDR images I've produced from my visit the Naval Museum. I rented a Canon 16-35mm F2.8 'L' lens for the trip.

I've been using two different HDR programs. Picturenaut and Cinephoto.

I took this sequence of photos in the under Lake Michigan exhibit.

The Composite HDR image.

Original exposure, 20 seconds!

10 seconds, under exposed. -1.0

30 seconds, over exposed. +1.0

Here's another example:

The composite Image.

Original Exposure

Underexposed -1.0

Overexposed +1.0