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HDR Photography PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 17 September 2007
Creating high dynamic range images involves a little planning and setup time, but the results can be wonderful. Here's a step-by-step approach to help you ease into creating HDR images.
  1. Bracketing
    Setup your camera to bracket 3 or more images. Ensure that your bracket covers the entire range of light that is present in the scene.

  2. White Balance
    Set your white balance to whatever the scene requires, but don't use auto.

  3. Mount the camera on a tripod.
    Having a stable base for your camera is very important and means less alignment issues in post productions. While hand-held HDR is very possible, and many people create very successful images with this technique, having a sturdy tripod will give you the best results. If you have a model in the scene, just ask them to hold as still as possible for a few seconds.

  4. Cable Release
    Attach the Cable release, or set the camera to use the self timer. You do not want to touch the camera at all. Even the slightest movement can cause alignment issues with your final images.

  5. Switch the camera to aperture priority and make your aperture F8 This step is only to give you a direction in where to begin, let me add that some people prefer to actually shoot at smaller apertures, experiment, and adapt this step to your workflow.

  6. Mirrior Lock-up
    When bracketing your shutter speeds may get very slow and the mirrior can cause vibrations that blur the image. Mirrior lock-up helps you to avoid the mirrior slap that creates this.

  7. Shoot
    Now, just take your series of photographs! You have successfully just captured a set of images that will merge into an HDR image!

  8. The next step is to actually merge the images to an HDR or EXR file, so open Photomatix. The quickest way to do this is by running a batch. I actually batch almost 90% of my HDR image processing.


    Open Photomatix.


  9. Go into the batch menu.



  10. -Click Generate HDR image
    -Click process with details enhancer
    -Go down to source and browse to where your images are stored and select them.
    -Go to destination and select how your image will be output.


  11. You have just successfully created an HDR, plus a tonemapped image!
  12. When you open your image for the first time, your histogram may look something like this...



    and your image like this...



    There are numerous ways of doing things in Adobe Photoshop, so I will only touch on the method I use. So, let's add some contrast, with Nik.



  13. Click Pro Contrast, and adjust the image to your taste. This may turn your image looking something like this.

  14. Next we're going to bring out that shadow detail, so click "Image > Adjust > Shadow Highlight"



    Adjust the sliders to taste, and you may be left with something like this.

  15. Next we're going to punch those colors, so let's hit Nik again, and this time run our Brilliance and Warmth.



    Again, adjust sliders to your taste, and your image will come out with a little more color intensity, like this.

  16. Now, let's add a little sharpening, so zoom in to %100 percent and load Smart Sharpen by clicking "Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen"



    Again, adjust the sliders to your taste.I try to keep the radius low, something like 0.6, then toggle the amount slider.
  17. Our image.



    Below are some sample images that were made with this technique. It is the exact technique that I use to process almost all of my HDR photography, so I know you will get results if you try. Experiment and have fun, thanks for reading!

    Additional tips

    --> Look for scenes with high contrast. In my experience this will give you the most impact in your images. (Reflections, dark objects, metal, shiny objects, bright lights, heavy shadows, bright sunlight, etc)

    --> When assessing the area you will be photographing, try to get clouds in the skies.

    --> Remember how you always tried to not back light your subject without a main softbox/reflector/mainlight with conventional photography? With HDR, break all the rules that limited you and never feel constrained. You are only limited by your imagination, so start dreaming of new ways you can use HDR that have never been seen.
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Comments (15)add
Awesome!
written by Brian Auer , September 17, 2007
Great stuff! And a wonderful example photo. Seeing the image at each step definitely helps.
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Thanks for sharing!
written by Amber , September 17, 2007
Thanks for sharing your tricks of goodies! Now it's going to be practice time for a lot of us!!! (O;
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Amazing!
written by Eisa ALSHAMSI , September 17, 2007
Thank you for sharing your HDR Technique.
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HDR using iPhoto ?
written by Garry Taylor , September 17, 2007
Thanks for sharing the process for HDR photos. Noticing that you can use Adobe Photoshop for creating the effect, I was wondering (since I have a MacBook) if it is possible to create the same effect using the 'Adjust' function in iPhoto 6.0.6 which has Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature, Tint, Sharpness and Exposure.
Thanks
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...
written by Eddie , September 19, 2007
Do you use a tripod to ensure the tilted horizon?
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Hey
written by hdr , September 19, 2007
I have a spirit level built into my tripod. Not always time to adjust it though if you're not prepared, especially if you're chasing failing light...like a sunset. Not to make excuses, but this is a 20,000 pixel wide panorama, so what you are seeing here is a sliver. This tutorial is about the processing more than anything.
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HDR
written by Brian White , September 23, 2007
That's a beautiful photo! I really like doing HDR photography, especially at night. It's the only time I like to photograph architecture. Here's my own article on high dynamic range photography, if you're interested.

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HDR Photography
written by hdr , September 23, 2007
Thanks Brian, I might have to try the night HDR stuff. There's a photographer out here, she does night HDR and ends up with some pretty cool effects.
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interesting tutorial!
written by sandro , September 26, 2007
I just discovered HDR photography, this is an amazing article thx.
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where is the english original ??
written by joe cool , October 17, 2007
The software you used to autotranslate this isnt worth 2 cents..so, until you can´t provide a german version dont try so, we all know (enough) english to follow you in the English language.

best regards
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...
written by AlexParlett , November 24, 2007
Stolen tutorial, not his original work.
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Yea right...
written by hdr , November 24, 2007
That's interesting AlexParlett...I own the page for the Squidoo where this tutorial was first published, I owned John in Japan, where I published it second, and now I own HDR Japan, where I have edited it, and will continue to tweak it, and keep it up to date. It's interesting how you're telling me that I am not John, and I didn't write this tutorial. You may want to check your facts on this one.
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...
written by Jim , November 26, 2007
Well I know you are John, I still have some trouble understanding the first time I will try it again.
Thanks John!
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written by Darius , December 23, 2007
Thank you for posting this very interesting article, but I have a question.

Wich file do you process on Photoshop? the HDR or JPG, I do a small test with JPG.

Thanks
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Thank you... and Thank you very much
written by Claudio Reis , May 09, 2008
Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Now it's going to be practice.

Thank you again.
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