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87 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More artsy than technical, December 23, 2009
This review is from: A World in HDR (Paperback)
Trey Ratcliff, aka StuckInCustoms, finally released his new book, "A World In HDR". Ever since he announced that he was writing a book, I couldn't wait to get it. I've been following Trey on his website and drooling over some of his wonderful images he's taken during his travels for quite a while now. I even use some of the techniques he discusses in his tutorial, which has really helped my processing. He's a big influence on my work. I think I signed up to get it on Amazon back in August. It finally came on Friday last week and I just finished reading it a day or two ago. Now take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. This is my first book review and I still consider myself an intermediate photographer. With all of that said, here's what I think:
Overall, I'm a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were way too high, but I really don't think so.
The book starts out with a chapter on what High Dynamic Range photography is and how your brain interprets light. He explains that the eye darts around quickly, taking in different levels of light and how your brain puts the different light levels together in a sort of snapshot, giving you a vision of the scenery around you that a normal camera cannot possibly express in one snap of the shutter. The next chapter quickly explains how art forms evolve, such as music, and how HDR is evolving photography. In these two chapters, he uses words such as "synethesia" and "eleemosynary" and speaks about art quite well, but that's not for my taste. I'm pretty simple and just want to get to the meat and potatoes of how to do it. Time to break out the dictionary. He then very quickly begins his showcase of amazing images and where he was when he took them.
The photography is stunning to say the least. He is certainly a pioneer in this medium. Some of my faves include, "The Magic of Disney", "The Icy Pit to Hell", and "Hong Kong From the Peak on a Summer's Night." Shots such as these fill the pages through chapter 4 and make up the bulk of the book. The descriptions of his images are a fun read. Trey has a wry sense of humor that I enjoy. When he talks about his Russian tent-mate Yuri or explains the steps you need to take to get a shot inside of a cathedral, I snickered a little too loudly.
Also included with the image on each page is a little technical blurb in red italics that tells you what he did in that particular photographic situation as far as f-stop, iso or even possibly processing. However, it's not too in-depth and most of this technical info does not explain the actual settings he used in the software, save for maybe a couple of shots. He really wants you to try to figure it out on your own for the most part. I was hoping for more things like how much luminosity he used, did he used LucisArt in this one, did he use other software in that one. Again, great shots, but not much technical info.
Speaking of technical, chapters 5 and 6 go into his tutorial and other software recommendations. His tutorial in chapter 5 is fantastic. After his instruction, one could really process photos into HDR quite easily. However, it's the one you can get on his website for free, except for a couple of minor updates. That was another little disappointment. The only new thing I found here is that he changed the opacity of the brush tool for masking from 30% on the tutorial on his website, to 50% in the book. He also explains double-tonemapping, which is new as far as I can tell. That's about it. Chapter 6 also reviews some other software that he uses and those reviews can be found on his website as well.
That's it! No conclusion or anything. So overall, I think it's a good book, but disappointing at the same time. I think the tutorial should've been more toward the beginning of the book. I think this would help prepare the reader with a foundation of what he did in some of the images where he actually does talk a little about the processing he performed. Also, I really expected this book to include more about the actual settings he used in the software while processing each image and what other camera settings he used. I remember watching one of his videos in Atlanta where a person he was with asked him what bracket settings he would use in a particular situation. He would say something like (I'm paraphrasing), " I would bracket at -1 to +1 here because of this type of light." THAT's the kind of stuff I was looking for! I also really didn't care for all of the artsy-fartsy references to Monet, Renoit and the like. But, this is an art form and I can't really ding him for this. It's just a little too high-falutin' for me.
I guess I expected a technical book and what I got was an art book. My first clue should have been the title, "A World In HDR". That is a good title since it really discusses just that.
It's a great coffee table book and a great book for those getting started in HDR photography or have never heard of HDR photography. But, for those of us who have been doing this for a little while now, you can get just about everything in the book from his website. Not that that's a bad thing, but unless you want to help him by buying his book as a thank you for the work he's brought to the world, you may just want to stick with his StuckInCustoms website.
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71 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointed in this book. Misleading, January 17, 2010
This review is from: A World in HDR (Paperback)
If ever there was a reason to go check a book out in person before you buy, this is it. I waited for this book to come out. This was my one and only Christmas gift this year. Heaven knows how much Trey has hyped it on his website, Flickr, FB and Twitter. The cover shows a "seal" on the top left that says "Featuring The Award-Winning Exclusive HDR TUTORIAL" WOW!! It HAS to be good right? Wrong.
First off, it's 210 pages long. Of those 210 pages, roughly 18 relate to this "Award Winning HDR Tutorial." That leaves the rest for him to show us his "home movies" of his greatest shots (just ask him). Like someone else mentioned, most of these shots are already on his website, in larger than life sizes. Hey, I admire a healthy ego, but this book is kind of over the top for me.
Instead of showing HOW he did each of the 100+ pages of HDR photos that we are treated to, he tells us about getting up on catwalks and how popular he is and all the great places he's been to. Super..
Which takes us to the Tutorial itself. Wow, not really helpful. Think of someone who is so impressed with his HDR work, that he doesn't REALLY want anyone else to copy him.. Telling others "how to" do HDR photos.. That pretty much sums it up.
Tips like: "Smoothing. This important slider affects the HDRness of the shot. The more you move it to the left, the more psychedelic your imagine will be." Thanks Trey..
On shooting your HDR sunset photo to follow along with in this award winning tutorial. Does he also show a sunset photo just for kicks? Or offer a download for photos so you can follow along?? Nope.. He shows us one of his favorite Times Square photos. How does this relate to the sunset we are supposed to be doing? It's doesn't.
So, take some pictures already!! Ha, set camera on auto-bracket and take 3 shots, -2, 0, +2. Of course my award winning Times square photo was taken with 5 auto bracket shots but I want to confuse you later, so I'll work with 5 auto bracketed shots of Times Square and you work with 3 auto bracketed shots of some sunset. That way, I don't have to "really" show you how I would do it, by using the very same setup or photos.. See that's how this award winning tutorial and photo book goes. Most of the award winning tutorial pages are really 1/2 to 1/3rd of the page, as his Time Square photos takes up the rest of it. (Not to mention pg's 178 and 179 are just one large award winning Times Square photograph.)
"What aperture should you use? Well, this (award winning) Tutorial doesn't really advise on this sort of thing, but f/9 or /10 should keep everything is focus."
In all honestly, aperture is not one of the things I'm wanting to know about. Again, would have been nice to see more screen shots of the different HDR apps and settings he used to achieve them.
Honestly, I have nothing against Trey or HDR. If your a SIC fan, this is a great book for you. If you're looking for an "Award winning HDR Tutorial, this is NOT the book you seek.
I own both Photomatix pro and Dynamic-Photo HDR. I was hoping this would really be an asset in learning more about HDR, It's not. Both programs offer far more help in their FAQs.
I feel like I was sold something I wouldn't have bought had I been able to look through the tutorial first. It's my fault. I fell for Trey's hype instead. I live in a small town in a remote area. The local "book" store sells newspapers. If you are a fan of Trey, you have already seen all these HDR photos, trust me. There really is nothing new here. It's no wonder Amazon is showing so many for sale as used.
I would have given this one star, but I don't want to be that guy. Besides, Trey's given me a whole new respect for Ken Rockwell.
Oh well, looking forward for my Sham-wow to come, heard they are great..
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39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I hadn't ordered book, January 11, 2010
This review is from: A World in HDR (Paperback)
I just received Treys new HDR book. I was very disappointed. I thought the book was a technical how-to. I love his HDR Photos and regularly visit his web site. His book is a mostly a collection of his photographs with very little info on how to shot HDR photos.
I can see his work on his web site and don't need his book.
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