Actually, I cheated with these – all of the images are single exposures that were then modified in GIMP to simulate over and underexposure.

I then applied tone maps to the dark/light exposures and then composited back into a single one.

Results varied, and these were the four ‘best’ – I particularly like the Melbourne nightscape, as it produces a pretty good glow. I also like the long exposure one of my Dad, as it creates an even more ethereal feel to it…

[Show as slideshow]

One note – these are all tone mapped HDR images. This creates the rather vivid and strong glow you see in the images above.

Brightness mapped HDR images offer a more subtle effect – and can be quite useful in reducing the washout you can get with bright skies over shadowed subjects, for example. I’ll have go at knocking some of them up at a later time to show the difference.

Messing about in the GIMP again – this time I was inspired by some black and white shots to have a quick blast at playing with another image.

This time I picked a shot of a single subject and played with either desaturating the background or the rider. Desaturation was done on luminousity rather than lightness, as this seemed to reduce the ‘burnout’.

I couldn’t decide if it was better to have the rider in colour or the background – so I posted both.

You can see the full-sized upload here.

Invisibles have always amazed me since I saw them used in movie quizzes at FilmWise. Just the strangeness of seeing an otherwise normal and familiar scene with faces cleverly removed. It also made the quizzes hard, as we tend to cue in on faces rather than clothes and scenery.

I finally took some time to learn the trick myself, and had a go at it in GIMP, the free alternative to PhotoShop.

After a couple of hours of so, including one false start, here’s the result. It’s a little rough in places – and I could have spent a little more time on it, maybe. I’m hoping next time, I’ll be able to get more done in less time, now that I know the tricks.