Posts by Jourles

43

HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

by Jourles in

jw
friends

does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

you then merge them together.

Jourles

How much time between photographs, and which program do you use for merging.

As far as time goes, most dSLRs have a feature called "bracketing" which automatically adjusts the exposure from -2.0/+2.0 for you and fires off a sequence of shots with those settings. I decided to do it the manual way(so I can become more familiar with the technique). Using Aperture Priority mode(the depth of field needs to stay the same!), I set the WB with my exposure at 0.0. I then underexposed at -2.0 snapped the pic, adjusted the exposure to -1.3, snapped the pic, etc. until I got up to +2.0. The time between shots was probably 2-3 seconds. I probably will use the bracketing feature next time seeing that it keeps my hands off the camera.(I'm using a corded remote with tripod) This gave me a nice selection of shots to combine from. All of these are taken in RAW mode as well. I also turned off image stabilization since it's on a tripod.

For post processing, I use Corel's Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. I've been using Jasc for a long time and Corel happens to own them now. I've used Adobe Photoshop, but I can do everything in X2 that I can in PS without the high price that comes with it. A great little side program to have is the Nik filter/effect software - it also acts as a plugin for X2. Amazing stuff.

43

HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

by Jourles in

jw
friends

does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

you then merge them together.

Jourles

Does anyone employ HDR(High Dynamic Range) photography in their bag of tricks? In a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same). You then merge them together. The finished photo contains extreme amounts of detail and appears almost hyper-realistic. I've been meaning to do this for a while now and so today I set out to try my hand at it and see what I could come up with. The clouds were ideal and our trees are a little past peak but still usable. Here are a few of my results:

I could kick myself on this one. I had just placed my tripod and tightened everything down. When I was peering through the viewfinder, I immediately saw what appeared to be a "halo" right above his head. Seeing that you don't always get a chance to get that kind of a photo, I ran through a bunch of shots and then realized that my white balance wasn't set correctly for this capture. In the meantime, the clouds were moving and breaking up. So by the time I set my WB and reverified focus, this is what I ended up with. You can actually see where the cloud portion to the right is breaking away and then to the left it is fading. Amazing what you can miss in the course of 1 minute. This was taken in a cemetary.

This one is from a slightly different viewpoint. I wanted this picture to convey, "Jesus is coming, you'd better look busy!" Sort of a scare poster for churchgoers - to remind them that Jesus isn't all about love and happiness. Afterall, he's coming back to kick some ass, right?

This is just downriver from my house. I probably should have come to this spot about two weeks ago while our trees were at peak color. But like I said, the cloud cover today was awesome for this style of photography. A clear sky just doesn't have the same effect.

So is anyone else into HDR? Have any pics you'd like to share?

3

Honda FCX Clarity - hydrogen powered car coming in 2008

by Jourles in

jw
friends

if you live in the socal area and $600 a month for a lease is chump change to you, honda will be offering a new hydrogen powered car in mid-2008.. just imagine the implications to the entire automotive industry, not to mention the oil industry, once this technology becomes more commonplace.

the car's range is roughly 270 miles.

of course, the hydrogen fuel infrastructure needs to be built out, so this may take an act of god to accomplish if the oil companies have anything to say about it.. http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/.

Jourles

If you live in the SoCal area and $600 a month for a lease is chump change to you, Honda will be offering a new hydrogen powered car in mid-2008.

Just imagine the implications to the entire automotive industry, not to mention the OIL industry, once this technology becomes more commonplace. The car's range is roughly 270 miles. Of course, the hydrogen fuel infrastructure needs to be built out, so this may take an act of God to accomplish if the oil companies have anything to say about it.

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

Jourles, of the Honda whore class

Proud owner of a Honda Accord and Honda Sabre

46

Gas Prices Are Supposed To Go Up 20 Cents In The Next 2 Weeks!!!

by minimus in

jw
friends

how will that personally affect you?

Jourles

9 bucks a gallon!

Well it's a good thing we're not so far technologically advanced to where we have to put bottled water into our tanks for the same gas mileage! But water's supposed to be free, man! (don't remember what commercial that was from)

28

Associated Jehovahs Witnesses for Reform on Blood

by LtCmd.Lore in

jw
friends

http://www.ajwrb.org/.

anyone heard of this group before?.

i just heard about them today on an episode of the skeptics guide to the universe.

Jourles

As everyone else already mentioned, this site has been around for years. It was even around during the H2O days(pre-JWD). It was one of the first sites that really made my brain start thinking for itself as I was 'coming out.'

54

Anyone watched the film 'Sicko'?

by katiekitten in

jw
friends

i watched this film last night, and it made me really really grateful that we have free health care in the uk.

i know we complain about the state of the nhs, but the bottom line is if there is ever anything wrong with me my first thought will not be 'does my insurance cover this' or 'can i afford this'.. there was one part of the film where michael moore takes some people to cuba to get free health care and one woman picks up inhalers for 5 cents a piece, that are costing her $120 in the us.

she just breaks down and crys at the disparity of the cost.. it was also telling to see the insurance companies employ people specifically to try and find ways to deny claims or to void policies where a claim has been made.

Jourles

Just watched that pathetic piece of crap last night. How dare the fact that French doctors can live in a million dollar house, own two expensive cars and make only around $200,000 per year...AND offer their top-notch, socialized medicine to everyone!

Get yer facts straight ya damn Neo-Rightwing-O'ReillyRush MM basher! It was a British NHS dr that made the 200k, not a silly Frenchman!

4

$611 Billion - Was it worth it?

by Jourles in

jw
friends

a list of things which $611 billion could pay for:.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/251007war_costs/.

obviously, 70,000 years of dicek's salary isn't a good example on how to spend it, but some of the others make you think, where did our priorities go?.

Jourles

A list of things which $611 billion could pay for:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/251007war_costs/

Obviously, 70,000 years of DiceK's salary isn't a good example on how to spend it, but some of the others make you think, where did our priorities go?

51

A Jewish President?

by nvrgnbk in

jw
friends

i want to thank a christian for the a mormon president?

thread that inspired this one.. so, what do you think?.

what would you think about a jewish prez?.

Jourles

And the previous President carried a HUGE f*****g Bible,

But still, the difference between the two is glaring:

Bush: “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’

Clinton: "I like sex. I love to get my freak on."

If I had to choose between two men as president and one said God speaks through him and the other liked to get his freak on, I'd pick the freaky one any day. (ok, ok - the first quote is real; the second one, well, you figure it out)

51

A Jewish President?

by nvrgnbk in

jw
friends

i want to thank a christian for the a mormon president?

thread that inspired this one.. so, what do you think?.

what would you think about a jewish prez?.

Jourles

Tula,

Anyway, if you want the whole story you can go to:http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/obama-salute.htm
And by the way...this photo is for real. He did not salute or acknowledge national anthem.

You're playing into the chain email originator's and conservative spin doctor's hands. True, the photo is real, but the message is not. The National Anthem nor the Pledge of Allegiance was sung or spoken. The original chain email should have given a head's up to most readers with its use of these words:

Obama’s middle name is “Hussein” and says he “REFUSED TO NOT ONLY PUT HIS HAND ON HIS HEART DURING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, BUT REFUSED TO SAY THE PLEDGE.....how in the hell can a man like this expect to be our next Commander-in-Chief????”

Appeal to emotions based on lies. What other reason would there be to bring up his middle name? Hussein? Saddam Hussein...Barack Hussein...Oh shit! This dude could be a tyrant/dictator/terrorist! I can't believe some people are still influenced by this crap(not saying you are).

If you want to hear for yourself what was going on at the time this photo was taken, watch this video:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3759803

It was the Star Spangled Banner which was being sung. Here is a more balanced article of the event. I would suggest that everyone read it. Did you know that the SSB was originally a drinking song? In that case, I would chastise all of the candidates for not holding up a mug of cider and swaying with the words.

54

Anyone watched the film 'Sicko'?

by katiekitten in

jw
friends

i watched this film last night, and it made me really really grateful that we have free health care in the uk.

i know we complain about the state of the nhs, but the bottom line is if there is ever anything wrong with me my first thought will not be 'does my insurance cover this' or 'can i afford this'.. there was one part of the film where michael moore takes some people to cuba to get free health care and one woman picks up inhalers for 5 cents a piece, that are costing her $120 in the us.

she just breaks down and crys at the disparity of the cost.. it was also telling to see the insurance companies employ people specifically to try and find ways to deny claims or to void policies where a claim has been made.

Jourles

Yep, saw the film and met MM at the premiere:

As MM brought up in the film and as many people, including myself, have repeatedly mentioned, the folks against "Socialism" (or in their minds Communism -- ooooooo!) are quite content with the "socialized" services they receive nowadays. What if you had to pay for Fire or Police Dept insurance? What if you called 911 and the first thing they asked you was, "What insurance do you have?" The next time you dial 911, think about this and the role socialism plays in our US society. If someone gets bent out of shape over Socialism, I would highly suggest you start weening yourself off of these services in your community. Get a larger garden hose, setup a super secure alarm system in your house, get a gun - do what you need to do to get yourself out of the system. Hmmm, is it any coincidence that our fire trucks are painted Red?