Basic HDR Photography

Hi guys, Welcome back to my blog. This time it's HDR photography. It's my latest addiction. First of all HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Thats all now say it three times....High Dynamic Range High Dynamic Range High Dynamic Range..!! ;). A warning issued from my side that you are about to read a dangerous article that could change your style of photography entirely(really??).

Why this HDR is so popular these days..? The answer is simple, because HDR gives the photo the feel of a live image that we see with our eyes. The greatest lens ever build is our eyes. Our eyes can see a lot more range of contrast than any other camera. So in HDR make our digital camera capture the different portions of the complete spectrum of contrast and then combine them using photomatrix. Note that photomatrix is one of the software available on net for this purpose. You may choose a different one.

Now lets start with the basics of HDR photography, the equipments required are:

1.) A camera that could take photos at different exposures. absolutely any camera can do the job. It need not to be a fancy DLSR or a costly point and shoot.

2.) A tripod. A tripod would be handy because you would take multiple photos. A slight shake in the frame could spoil the final photo.

3.) Photomartix or Photoshop software to merge your photos.

That's all. but if you have funds the list may go on to
4.) Circular polariser filters
5.)  Neural Density filters 
6.) Shutter release cable
7.) Wide aperture lens..etc etc etc...;)

Now lets start with the steps:

Step one:
Analyze the frame you want to capture. Once a great photographer told me that you can't good photos by buying an expensive camera, but you could great one if you use only three tricks: compose compose and compose. Compose your frame nicely. The rule of thirds can be handy here. Now choose a Frame


 

Step Two: 
Now its time for exposure bracketing..already scared? Don't be, it's as easy as it doesn't seem(I hope the grammar in it correct..!!). Your camera may a have a mode called Aperture Priority. Switch to that mode and there we have a option called exposure compensation. Use it to take two more photos with -2.00 and +2.00 exposure compensation.

 This image is of the same frame. The exposure setting in this photo is +2.00

This photo is taken with exposure setting -2.00. Note that the frame is stable. So a tripod is necessary.
 










Step three:
Now Photomatrix is at work. Follow the steps shown below:

1.) Open photomatrix pro

2.) Load Bracketed photos:

3.) Select these options for better results

 4.) The view will look like this:

 5.) Use the tone mapping function function to edit the image:

  
6.) The image after some editing will look like this

7.) Use the finishing touch function to finalize the image:
 

8.) Save the result HDR image in whatever format you like.

The last step, and the final output image after some retouching in picasa or photoshop whatever you prefer is:

Thats all. Some of my HDR Photos:

With HDR imagination is the only limit.

P.S: Comments are welcomed 
Keep Shooting..!!!