First Go at HDR Photography

Have you ever taken a picture, and then when showing someone the picture you’ve taken, you sigh with dissapointment, “Well, you just had to be there. The picture doesn’t do it justice.”

I’ve gone through that…a lot.

I still have a lot to learn about photography, but I’ve wished I could get my pictures to turn out better.

There’s a technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, and I finally was able to give it a go this holiday season.

Here are some shots I took:

A Cool Winter’s Day

Nestled in the Mountains

Cabins in the Distance

Red Sky Delight (or Pink)

First Go at HDR

When you’re watching a sunset, your senses take in the beauty of the scene.

The problem when taking a picture of the scene is that the photograph doesn’t record like your mind records a scene.

The camera doesn’t record what you see because your eyes and brain interpret the light differently than the camera’s sensor.

For example, here’s what the Red Sky photo looked like without HDR

You can see how the camera doesn’t interpret the light from the trees and ground very well, but standing there, you could see them and the sunset just fine.

It was a beautiful moment on what was becoming a chilly winter evening as the sun set.

Here’s the HDR version again:

HDR helps capture the essence and feeling of the scene.

You adjust your camera’s settings to take different exposures of the same scene.

Underexposed, which captures the majesty of the sky for example, and then increasing the exposure on the camera with each picture.

Low exposure:

Lighter:

Lighter-er:

Pretty exposed there:

Unfortunately, when I was taking the pictures, the clouds were moving super fast. They just would hold still for me!

So you take the various exposures and put them in a program called Photomatix that combines the images for you. It’s pretty slick.

Final Result:

If your camera can autobracket, you can take the different exposure levels automatically. My current camera can’t do that, so I have to manually adjust after each picture (which can move the camera, creating blur).

My pictures above are my first go at HDR and aren’t the best examples, but with time and a little more practice, who knows?