HDR photography has become quite popular recently.  Even the new iPhones will produce stunning HDR images.  If you are unfamiliar with this style of photography, the HDR stands for High Dynamic Range.  Traditionally to create these types of images you would be required to take at least 3 identical images at different exposure settings, and those photos would be combined into a single image using special software.  The reason for this is because an HDR is taking the areas from each photo that are perfectly exposed and combining them into one image.  Typically, when you take a photo of a scene not everything in the image is at its optimum exposure.  For example, one area might be in a shadow and another area could be over exposed by the sun, but an object elsewhere in the image is perfectly exposed.

Now lets say we didn’t think to take 3+ images when we were out shooting but we still want a beautiful HDR image of the scene.  That’s were this Lightroom technique for fake HDRs comes in to play.

Lets start with the original image:

As you can see, the image is fairly drab, the colors are not vibrant, and the front of the gas pump is under exposed compared to the rest of the scene.

The image to the left illustrates the Lightroom settings I used to obtain our effect.  The first step is to get everything properly exposed, you can do this by fidgeting with the “Fill Light” and “Recovery” settings in Lightroom.  Add more fill light to brighten up dark areas, and more recovery to restore details to over exposed areas.

Personally, I’m a contrast junkie so I like to bump my clarity all the way up and add contrast to taste. This will create a sharp, crisp image.  And lastly, you will want to bring your vibrance and saturation up.  This will help make those colors bright and vibrant just like you see in many HDR images.

And that’s it, you have your High Dynamic Range image. You can download the lightroom preset I created to make this image right click on this link and choose save as.

A possibly little known fact about IMA Lab is that we also develop applications and websites for other museums. Recently we were approached by the Atlanta History Center to build an interactive war map kiosk for an exhibition entitled “War In Our Backyards.” The Atlanta History Center has gathered an immense amount of data about the civil war battles in the Atlanta area and they wanted to convey this information onto a map so that visitors could see what took place right in their neighborhoods.

Not only did this exhibit involve a series of touch screen kiosks, but also needed to include a large version of the map that would be projected from the ceiling onto a table in the middle of the exhibit. Many ideas had been tossed around for the best way to approach this unique kiosk design. The approach we eventually decided on was to build a single interface that could accommodate both the projection and the touch screen displays. The screen shot below depicts the final interface design.

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If you have been reading the blog of our 100 Acres islanders you probably already know about this: our friendly neighborhood island residents are giving boat tours of Andrea Zittel’s Indianapolis Island from 10:30am – 1 pm everyday.

So yesterday I decided to hop on down to the park and take a boat ride myself.   If you have an opportunity, I highly recommend checking it out.  The island is pretty neat.  Just make sure the flag is up and you bring something to trade.

Here is the generator they built for electricity on the island.  I was told it takes about 2 and a half hours of pedaling to generate about an hours worth of electricity.

Jessica was enjoying some much appreciated sun tan lotion as acquired in a trade.

Jessica making trades with the family that rode the boat in with me:

This weekend’s weather forecast is looking pretty fine. If you visit the islanders, what do you plan to bring along to trade?

Back in February we launched a new version of the IMA website.  But by now, I’m sure you are already aware of this.  And because a programmer’s work is never done, after the launch it was on to phase 2. That included improving our online store and integrate it into the rest of the site.

With that, we are pleased to announce the new and improved online Shop Section:

With the launch of the online shop, users (that’s you) will now be able to purchase tickets and memberships right along side any books, cards, or jewelry you may decide to buy.  Whether you’re shopping the IMA Store, the Design Center, or the Greenhouse Shop, you’ll immediately receive a 10% membership discount on items when you are purchasing a membership.  If you already have a membership, you will just need to login to take advantage of the discount.

The shop also received a dramatic visual overhaul, bringing featured products and categories to the front.  And all based on the 960 grid system as previously discussed by Matt. Happy shopping!

Rarely does anyone visit our office at the back of the Stout Library without saying “Wow, what an amazing view”.  And rightfully so.  It’s an amazingly beautiful look out into the south side of the Oldfields gardens.  With out a doubt a wonderful source of inspiration and natural beauty.

So back in March as the snow began to recede I would regularly peer out into the drab naked trees with great anticipation of watching them green up and return  to the former glory of last summer.  As luck would have it someone shared this link with me around the same time.  It’s the Timelapse group on vimeo and there are some breathtaking videos created via time lapse photography

Here is one example that blew my mind.

This all got me thinking.  What if I stuck a camera facing out of our window for a month and took a photo every half hour?   Well, sounded like there was only one way to find out.   So here is 1 month of spring as taken every half hour, condensed into 23 seconds.

Watch as the gardens go green.