My first attempt at HDR photography

As you have seen in recent posts I’m really enjoying my new camera and lens. Just when I thought photography couldn’t get any better I was browsing the web and discovered HDRI which stands for High Dynamic Range Imaging. This is what Wikipedia has on the subject:

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

Some of the images examples I’ve seen are amazing so I did some more research and thought I would try it for myself. In short, our eyes can adjust to different intensity levels while a camera takes a still image at a single exposure setting. With HDR images you take several images at different exposure value (EV) settings and then merge them together. With my Canon 550D it as an auto exposure bracketing (AEB) setting which means it automatically takes 3 exposures when I press the shutter release. It takes a normal optimal exposure (EV 0), then a dark exposure (EV -2) and then a bright exposure (EV +2).

An underexposed image taken at EV -2

A normal exposure taken at EV 0

An overexposed image taken at EV +2

Next you merge the 3 images together, I used Photoshop, and then you can adjust various settings like exposure, gamma, radius, shadows, detail, strength, vibrancy and saturation. I wasn’t sure about this as some images look over-processed and no longer realistic but I think the concept of using this technique to achieve an image with detail closer to what the human eye can detect is exciting. So without playing with the settings too much and just working on increasing the detail in the shadow and highlight areas I got the following final image.

Final HDR image

I know this isn’t the best use or example of HDR but for a first attempt I’m fairly pleases and really excited to experiment more with this technique so look out for more HDR images in the future.

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