Digital Photo Pro - USA (2020-02)

that the camera was often high up on
the rail. A blurred bracket also might
have created a problem in combining
the images.
When I sat down at the computer
to process the frames for HDRI, I first
looked at the most extreme exposures to
decide if I needed to keep them in the
mix. If there was enough shadow detail
in the second-most “overexposed” frame
and/or enough highlight detail in the
second-most “underexposed” frame, I’d
sometimes knock off one or both ends of
the series. This meant I’d end up using
five or six frames instead of seven, or
seven or eight instead of nine. I found
I got the best results by not giving Pho-
toshop any more frames than necessary
to capture full detail across the entire
brightness range of the subject. I pro-
cessed the RAW frames in color, ending
up with a single Photoshop-format color
file; this way I only had to convert one
final frame to black and white.
After obtaining one file from the
many, I ran the image through DxO

Optics Pro software. Along with cor-

recting for any lens aberrations, this

software features perspective controls

that allowed me to fine-tune the squar-

ing up I’d done in-camera. Many of the

boxes ended up more perfectly square

than they were in real life!

Next, I converted the file to

black and white, using Photoshop’s

Image>Adjustments>Black and

White command.

Why black and white?

Aside from saving me the need to cor-

rect for the window light’s blue cast, it

made up for the fact that the contents of

the trays and boxes were a hodgepodge

of colors. I didn’t want an individual

item’s color to give it a gratuitous promi-

nence; I felt that color was a distraction

from the idea that these items had been

sorted into meaningful groups. While it

might seem an obvious nod to photogra-

phy’s own past, I also thought black and

white made it clear from the outset that

these images were about memory and

history—a record of a past life and, iron-

ically, of life’s impermanence, through

sentimental objects. The Japanese have

a phrase for this idea, mono no aware,

which means “the pathos of things.”

In converting the color file to black

and white in Photoshop, I almost

The task was

the most

emotionally

difficult thing

I have ever

done.

As a way of

mitigating my

sadness and

solitude,

I took pictures.

Rus’ Wedding Ring (Given Christmas 1950)

38 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com