I read a little about HDRI, even downloaded some relevant open-source software, then got distracted by eighteen other projects before I really got rolling with it. I should get back to that.
If I went out on the roof with a tripod, instead of leaning out the window like I usually do to shoot interesting Baltimore skies, I could bracket with this camera, given that the subject in question was sufficiently slow moving. (Changing the exposure compensation involves stepping through a couple of menus.) Trying to do it leaning out the window, frame registration would be a significant problem. And until I repair the battery door latch, bracketing is right out -- not enough hands to squeeze the door shut and operate the controls.
It'll be a long time before I can afford a DSLR, which is what I want in a digicam (and I wouldn't have been able to afford this point-and-shoot digital either -- it's a hand-me-down from a friend who upgraded, to whom I am grateful). I like the instant results, especially for blogging, but my SLR habits have me constantly thinking that I should do things that I remember a moment later this camera doesn't do (or doesn't do well). With my film cameras, bracketing is quick & easy. Then again, so is picking one part of the scene to meter for with my film cameras (all the more so if a second body, with a really long lens, is at hand to use as a spotmeter, of course).
It's too bad I can't operate the camera via its USB port. Then I could store custom shooting programs (including, say, auto-bracketing) on my PDA, and trigger them more quickly than I can do navigating the menus and such.
Anyhow, you're right that this morning's bleeding sky would have been good to shoot with HDRI techniques. There's no other way that could've gotten the brilliance of that gash and the indigo swirlies at the same time, or probably the curdled texture of the cloud ceiling, for that matter.
Re: No photo, alas
If I went out on the roof with a tripod, instead of leaning out the window like I usually do to shoot interesting Baltimore skies, I could bracket with this camera, given that the subject in question was sufficiently slow moving. (Changing the exposure compensation involves stepping through a couple of menus.) Trying to do it leaning out the window, frame registration would be a significant problem. And until I repair the battery door latch, bracketing is right out -- not enough hands to squeeze the door shut and operate the controls.
It'll be a long time before I can afford a DSLR, which is what I want in a digicam (and I wouldn't have been able to afford this point-and-shoot digital either -- it's a hand-me-down from a friend who upgraded, to whom I am grateful). I like the instant results, especially for blogging, but my SLR habits have me constantly thinking that I should do things that I remember a moment later this camera doesn't do (or doesn't do well). With my film cameras, bracketing is quick & easy. Then again, so is picking one part of the scene to meter for with my film cameras (all the more so if a second body, with a really long lens, is at hand to use as a spotmeter, of course).
It's too bad I can't operate the camera via its USB port. Then I could store custom shooting programs (including, say, auto-bracketing) on my PDA, and trigger them more quickly than I can do navigating the menus and such.
Anyhow, you're right that this morning's bleeding sky would have been good to shoot with HDRI techniques. There's no other way that could've gotten the brilliance of that gash and the indigo swirlies at the same time, or probably the curdled texture of the cloud ceiling, for that matter.