HDR explained…

So since I posted the HDR photos I took of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I have had a lot of questions about them.  So, here is a little lesson on HDR.

What is HDR? HDR (High Dynamic Range) is basically taking multiple photos of the same subject some over exposed, some under exposed and combining them to get the best parts of both.

How do you do that?

• You need a subject. In this case, it was Hogwarts Castle
• Set your camera to bracket the exposures. Not many point and shoot cameras have this function, and some SLR’s don’t even have it.  What this does is tells you camera to automatically take a certain number of pictures over and under exposed. Over exposed means the picture is too bright, underexposed means to dark.
• Shoot your pictures. In most cases, you need to use a tripod to get good HDR’s, I didn’t for my pictures, and I think I just got lucky.  Or maybe I am more steady then I thought! Your since setting up your camera to bracket the exposures, if you hold down the shutter button, it will take multiple pictures (in my case, 5).  The original 5 shots are here:

 

• Use a program you combine all the images into one.  Basically stacking them on top of each other.  For this, I use a program called Photomatix Pro.
• From Photmatix, you can adjust what parts are dark and what parts are light, along with the colour saturation. You can get some pretty wild photos. I like to keep my HDR’s subtle, but still dramatic.  I’m not really into the “painted” look of the pictures below:

 

Why do it? I love the effect that is can give to certain elements of a picture.  I also love that fact that it can be very artistic, and I am not a very naturally artistic person, but I can still be good at it. I have really only begun to explore the possibilities that HDR car bring.

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