The iPhone 4S has a built-in HDR option that works quite well. But, by using the following technique, you can maximize its potential, taking your camera phone images to a new level.

Vineyard Sunset captured with an iPhone 4S and processed with HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5. Click on image for larger version. Photo by Derrick Story.

Begin in the Settings dialog for the iPhone. Tap on the Photos icon. Scroll down to the HDR section and make sure that "Keep Normal Photo" is set to "On." When you take an HDR image with your iPhone, you'll now get two images: the original non-HDR shot (normal photo), and the processed image. These two shots will build the foundation for the next step.

Now it's time to go take some great shots with HDR turned on for your iPhone. When you return home, you'll have two images for each picture. Open both of those shots in your favorite HDR program. I use HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5.

Take the two iPhone images and open in an HDR processing program, such as HDR Pro for Photoshop CS5.

By having two shots with different dynamic ranges, you're able to get even more out of the composition than you could with the original HDR produced by the iPhone. Once you get the image the way you want, save it and share. People will be impressed that you captured such beautiful landscapes with your humble mobile phone.

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iPhone 4S Camera Pros and Cons

iPhone 4S Camera Exceeds My Expectations

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I don't always want to look the part of the photographer. Sometimes I'm just hanging out with friends, having a good time. That doesn't mean I don't want gear with me in case I spot a great shot. These are the days that I enjoy having the Lowepro Pro Messenger Bag 180 AWat my side.

Lowepro Pro Messenger 180 AW

The fabric looks like classic canvas. I love the way it brushes against my arms as I'm working. In fact, it's actually high tech material that's weather resistant and retains its good looks over the long haul. The flap is clever. In "security mode" it stays closed via generous amounts of velcro. Nobody is going to get inside the Pro Messenger without you hearing about it. But when you're working, change over to "quiet mode" that provides access to all of your gear without a sound. You can see how the FlexFlap design works on the Lowepro features page.

Inside, I can transport my 70-200 f/2.8 on body, plus a couple lenses, flash, and accessories. The pocket in the back has a zippered top and bottom. Open them both, and you have a trolly sleeve that slides over the handle of your rolling luggage. Close the bottom zipper and you can stow an iPad or collapsable reflectors there.

If the weather turns foul, I can use the All Weather cover to protect the entire bag. It's stowed behind the front pocket for easy access. Other handy features include a long fabric strap with generous shoulder padding, stretch side pockets, repositionable dividers for a variety of configurations, a large front pocket big enough to hold additional gear including a spare camera body, business card window, and top carrying handle.

Street price for the Lowepro Pro Messenger Bag 180 AWis $169. It's one of those rare items that performs as well as it looks.

Find great deals at the TDS Photography Store on Amazon.

From day one, I've wanted to print from my iPad and iPhone as easily as I can from my Mac. And for those who have an ePrint enabled HP printer, that day is here. I've been testing an HP LaserJet Pro 100 M175NW Laser printerthat has ePrint services as part of its wireless feature set. I can now easily print from my iOS devices, plus I'm enjoying a few bonus web services that I didn't expect.

When I go to print in Pages on my iPad, the HP LaserJet Pro shows up in the dialog box.

To get started, you have to go through the usual set-up process for the HP printer to get it on your WiFi network. I ran into one glitch with the LaserJet 100 because its bundled software disc wasn't compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Since a Lion update wasn't available yet, I had to connect the printer to a Snow Leopard Mac. Once the set up was complete, I've had no problems printing, checking supply levels, etc. from any of my Macs running Lion or Snow Leopard.

The hiccup is having to physically connect the printer to the computer via an USB cable to run the set-up software. If I had been able to connect the printer to the network wirelessly without involving my computer, I wouldn't have had any problems. Hopefully HP will release downloadable Lion-compatible software soon to ease this problem.

Once the printer is on the network and the Internet, I could go to www.eprintcenter.com and register the HP LaserJet using its unique code (that it will print out for you). As part of the registration process, you establish an unique email address for the printer.

Now the fun begins. I can print photos and documents directly from my iOS devices because the LaserJet shows up in all of their print options dialogs. It's literally as easy as printing from my Mac. Since I'm printing on plain paper with toner instead of ink, it's more affordable than inkjet output. Documents are crisp and detailed. Photos look remarkably good. I'm very happy with the HP LaserJet output.

But there's more. You can really get your geek on by taking advantage of HP's web services. When you establish your ePrint account with them, and choose your unique email address for the printer, you can use that email address to print from anywhere. I've been testing it with attachments I've received via Gmail and the Mail app for my iOS devices. All I have to do is forward that email to the printer address, and the LaserJet will output both the email and the attachment.

HP supports a variety of file types: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Text files (.txt), PDF, HTML, and images (bmp, jpg, png, gif, tiff). The job spools quickly, and is usually available within a minute or two. This is very cool.

HP also has specific mobile apps for your devices, such as HP home&biz for iOS. But I haven't really needed them since the previously described services work so well.

Bottom line, I'm thrilled to finally have true printing capabilities from my iOS devices. And the bonus of having easy-to-use web services also, allows me give HP ePrint a nimbleosity rating of 4 out of 5.

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Canon USA published a press release discussing the availability of three professional lenses. One of those included, the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS is the zoom I've wanted for years.

"The EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXTENDER l.4x is being developed as an L-series super-telephoto lens with an integrated 1.4x extender and high-performance Image Stabilizer technology. The new lens will offer exceptional flexibility by incorporating a built-in 1.4x extender that increases the maximum focal length to 560mm for sports and wildlife photography. High-quality images with high levels of resolution and contrast will be possible through the use of advanced optical materials such as fluorite crystal. The new lens will also include dust- and water-resistant construction designed for extended usage under harsh conditions."

What a wonderful complement to my 70-200mm f/2.8 IS. Of course this beast will be pricy. And there still isn't a release date for it. But I'm happy to get confirmation that my dream lens will someday be a reality.

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No matter how digital I get, there are a few cameras that I will never part with. Today's analog favorite: the Hasselblad 500C with Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f/4 lens. And to house it all, another classic: the Lowepro Magnum 35 camera bag.

A couple times a year, I pull out older cameras that I haven't used for a while and fire off a few frames -- just to keep them in good working order. This particular 500C was serviced about 8 years ago, and it sounds like an expensive Swiss watch when I wind the film advance crank.

I still have roll film and Polaroid packs. What I really wish I had was a digital back for this camera. That would be so amazing...

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One of the most common complaints I hear from photo subjects is that the photographer doesn't communicate during the shoot. I can see both sides to this equation. On one hand, shooters are ofter absorbed in figuring out lighting, camera settings, and composition and forget to talk. Yet, imagine being a subject just standing there wondering what's going on. In this week's podcast I share tips on how to build rapport for your people shots. These tips will help you with a variety of assignments... just about anything that involves another person.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also download the podcast here (30 minutes). Or better yet, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can support this podcast by purchasing the TDS iPhone App for only $2.99 from the Apple App Store.

Monthly Photo Assignment

Black & White is the Nov. 2011 Photo Assignment. You can read more about how to submit on our Member Participation page. Deadline for entry is Nov. 30, 2011.

More Ways to Participate

Want to share photos and talk with other members in our virtual camera club? Check out our Flickr Public Group. And from those images, I choose the TDS Member Photo of the Day.

Podcast Sponsors

Red River Paper -- The $7.99 Sample Kit is back! And with free shipping.

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Need a New Photo Bag? Check out the Lowepro Specialty Store on The Digital Story and use discount code LP20 to saven 20% at check out.

Professional travel photographer and teacher Rick Sammon is conducting a free webinar on Nov. 17, 12:00 - 1:00 PM PST. You can reserve your seat now by pre-registering.

I've learned much from Rick over the years (he's a good friend of mine), and I think you will too.

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We spent Sunday afternoon at the TDS Workshop creating prints from the edited images we had been working on. During this session, I helped participants fine tune their workflow to get the best images possible out of the Epson R2000 we had set up in the classroom.

My personal printing room when not teaching workshops.

Here are five tips that resulted from the workshop:

1. Turn off auto brightness in your Displays preferences. Then manually set brightness to two notches below full. Some participants had their displays set too dark which would adversely affect their print output. You may need to further adjust this for your particular computer and work environment. But this is a good starting point.
2. Review your output under a daylight balanced light source. I use natural light from a nearby window when possible. Non-balanced light sources, such as tungsten lights, fluorescents, etc. make it difficult to accurately judge what comes out of the printer.
3. Keep the workflow as simple as possible. Modern printers, such as the Epson R2000 have very intelligent software. In Aperture, we used "Printer Managed" in the Aperture print dialog box, then simply chose the correct paper surface in the ensuing Epson Print Settings dialog: Epson dialog > Print Settings > Media Type. Modern printers are much smarter than they used to be.
4. Find a printing paper that you really like. We were printing our portraits on a luster surface that looked and felt great -- Red River Arctic Polar Luster. There are a variety of papers our there. Find one that you love.
5. Improve your image editing skills. By knowing how to fine tune the color and luminance in your images, you'll get more satisfying output when you print. Keep in mind that your computer is backlit, and that paper is reflective. So prints often don't "glow as much." You can help compensate for this by fine tuning your settings in the print dialog box. Get familiar with these options so you feel more in control.

Printing your own work can be a very satisfying experience. By following these tips, and practicing with your equipment, you can produce some great artwork.

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Our crew of photographers wrapped a full day of classroom instruction and shooting on Saturday during the November TDS Aperture Workshop.

One of three model shoots on Saturday that will provide fresh content for the image editing modules on Sunday.

For today, which is the second session of the event, we'll use the portraits we shot yesterday for the image editing modules where we perfect basic adjustments, such as color correction, plus advanced techniques such as skin smoothing, brush work, and more.

We'll also make prints today with the Epson R2000 photo printer. The day will wrap up with professional slideshow authoring where we combine video and stills to create presentations that can be published online or viewed in person.

Currently we have two Aperture Intensive workshops in the 2012 schedule. You can learn more about them, and the other events, by visiting the TDS Workshops page.

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Apple released Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.9 that provides support for 11 new cameras, including the Canon S100, Nikon 1, Sony NEX 5N, and the new Olympus PENs. It's available via Software Update on your Mac.

New Yorker hotel shot with an Olympus E-PM3 (Mini) in Raw and processed in Aperture 3. Click on image for larger size. Photo by Derrick Story.

This means that Raw files from the following cameras can now be processed in Aperture 3, iPhoto 9, and Preview for Mac OS X Lion.

• Canon PowerShot S100
• Nikon 1 J1
• Nikon 1 V1
• Nikon COOLPIX P7100
• Olympus PEN E-PL1s
• Olympus PEN E-PL3
• Olympus PEN E-PM1
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ150
• Sony Alpha NEX-5N
• Sony Alpha SLT-A65
• Sony Alpha SLT-A77

I've been shooting Raw files with my Olympus PEN Mini, so I now can convert those images from this in Aperture:

To fully processed images that look like this. All I have to do is open the Adjustments tab, and click on the thumbnail. Aperture will automatically process the Raw file for you, once you have the update installed.

The workflow that I recommend for photographers who buy new cameras that are not supported yet in Aperture, is to shoot Raw+Jpeg in the beginning. Upload the Raws and Jpegs separately in Aperture and keep the in separate Albums, as I've done here. (Check the Library pane in the middle illustration to see the set up.) You can use the Jpegs immediately. Once the Raw update is available, you can then process the Raw files and switch over to them.

I've taken many good shots with the E-PM1 prior to the Raw update. If I didn't use this technique, I'd have only Jpegs from those weeks of shooting. Now I have both.

More Aperture Tips and Techniques

To learn more about Aperture 3, check out my Aperture 3 Essential Training on Lynda.com. Also, take a look at our Aperture 3 Learning Center. Tons of free content about how to get the most out of Aperture.

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