In an earlier blog post I talked about "bracketing the moon" where if you put your camera in Bracket mode it will take a picture and then also take an over and under exposed picture of that same subject. It was helpful to quickly find the right exposure setting for a nice picture of the moon.
Bracketing photos provides another tool to produce some beautiful photos called HDR photos. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. One of the easiest ways to make a HDR image it to use the bracketing technique to take 3 or more photos where you have a photo plus the over and under exposed version of the photo. HDR photos combine these three photos in one. This combination of over and underexposed lets these photos bring out shadows and highlights that you would not be able to see in just a one shot photo. The contrast you get with a HDR photo can really bring out details that you may not otherwise see in the normal photos.
Once you have the series of photos then you will need some software. I use a paid software called Photomatix. It is pretty straight forward to use. You just load your bracketed photos into the software and play with the settings until you get the HDR photo you like.
A free way to create HDR photos is to upload your various exposures into the the Google photo auto backup app on your phone or the computer. Google will automatically spit out a HDR for you. This can be hit or miss on how it turns out, but sometimes it works very well for a free way to get an HDR photo.
One thing HDRs do not do well with is movement. If there is too much movement from a blowing tree or a moving person between the shots, then blending the photos together will produce ghosting. Sometimes you can get rid of it and sometimes it is near impossible.
I find that with landscapes, HDR can always give a photo that looks in my opinion better than the original shots. Check out some HDR phots I took of my recent visit to some spots in the North Carolina Mountains. Next time you are out photgraphing, try taking different exposures and see what kind of HDR photos you can get.
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| Three exposures of the same waterfall |
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| The HDR photo from those 3 exposures |
Other HDR images I recently took.
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| Chimney Rock, NC |
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| Chimney Rock, NC |
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| Chimney Rock, NC |
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| Hickory Nut Falls, NC |
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| Hickory Nut Falls, NC |
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| Hickory Nut Falls, NC |
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| Hickory Nut Falls, NC |
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| Mount Mitchell, NC |
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| Mount Mitchell, NC |
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| Mount Mitchell, NC |
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