The project I mentioned a few posts ago has stalled a little recently when I realised that I couldn't really light it the way I wanted to. Using a single flashgun meant light coming from one side and no amount of reflectors was going to bounce enough light back from the opposite side. Taking a lead from something my mate Dave Fletcher has been working on for a few months I scoured E-Bay for an additional flashgun and a set of wireless triggers. However,due to the rise in the strobist movement, good manual flashguns have seen a rise in prices on the 2nd hand market. Where 9 months ago one would set you back around £20-30, today you can expect the same flashgun to cost double that. Luckily I managed to pick up a Vivitar 285 for just over £40. Flash triggers were easier to find, again I guess due to the popularity but I've had to order from China. I was hoping that they would have arrived for this weekend with delivery being quoted as 8-16 days but no sign as yet. I've a feeling it will be closer to the 16 day mark.

Never mind, it did give me the chance to try out a Photoshop plug-in that had been brought to my attention a while ago. It’s called ReDynamix from a company called Mediachance, and it deals with that old love it or hate it technique, HDR (or High Dynamic Range). Normally to be able to create an HDR image of a scene a photographer needs to take at least 3 images, all exactly the same except for the exposure, and they need to be under, correctly and over-exposed. These are then put into software which are then merged to create one image which carries the tones from all 3, so you can see detail in both the shadow and highlight areas, as well as the midtones. Done correctly, this technique can create an image which is tonally, pretty close to how the eye would have seen it. This plugin works slightly differently though, and allows the process to be done with just 1 image.  You can download a trial version of the software, which works as the full version does, but places details of the product across the top and bottom of the image so you couldn’t really use it other than to test.

I gave it a blast with an old image that I’d under-exposed in error at Tanfield Railway earlier on in the year.

Just using the default settings gave a pretty good result, but considering there are plenty of tweaks that can be made I did a little bit of extra work and came up with this.

Personally I like the way the plug-in works, and also the speed at which it does it. I’ve previously used Photomatix and found that it’s really easy to over do the effect, whereas ReDynamix seems to control it a lot better. Not bad at all, and available as a plug-in for Photoshop (V5 and above), Elements and Paintshop Pro 8 for just over £10 at Mediachance’s website. An evaluation version is available which lets you try out the software prior to purchase but places the small ads on the corners of the image as you can see above. It’s not often I get plug-ins but I reckon I may well be adding this one to my collection soon.