There has been a lot of talk about HDR Imaging lately so I thought I would take a moment and explain what it is and how this effect is achieved.

What is HDR
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range.In it’s simplist terms, an HDR image is made from combining mulitple images takes at different exposure settings and using a software package to combine the different exposures into a single image. The advantage of this is you end up with a final image that brings out the details from the shadows as well as the details in the highlights. In a normal photographic you may only be able to choose one extreme over the other.

What software do you need
Right now there isn’t any good free or open source software that can achieve good results and are easy to use. The two most common products for HDR image creation are Photoshop CS2 (Photoshop Elements does not have this feature) and Photomatix (around $99). Photomatix has an advantage in that is has a lot of tone mapping options for the finished image.

How do I get started?
To take photos that you will end up using as an HDR image, you will need a scene with no movement and you should use a tripod. If your camera supports exposure bracketing, set this up for 2-3 stops. On my Olympus E-500 I have exposure bracketing set to +/- 3 stops. Once I turn on the bracketing feature, the first picture will be taken at the set exposure, the second will be underexposed by -3 and the third will be overexposured by +3. If you are doing this manually, only adjust the exposure by changing the shutter speed, if you adjust your F-Stop the depth of field will change between images.

While this may not be the best example, here is a quick shot of some oranges that was taken with only natural light from a north window.

Normal Exposure
Under Exposure

Over Exposure

While the pictures may not look radically different in this example, but the end result will show more detail of the texture of the oranges and bright, vibrant colors. The final result created with Photomatix and a small tweak of the tone mapping is shown here.

Final HDR Output

Hopefully this explains the basics of what HDR imaging is and how to create them.

Happy Shooting!