IS3 - HDR photography

This year I would really like to learn more about a technique called high dynamic range (HDR). Its a technique used to show tremendous detail in a pictures highlights, midtones and shadows. This is used in situations where you have a very bright area and a very dark area in the same image. Because the camera can only expose properly for one of the areas HDR is the perfect solution to get the detail back in all areas of the photo. This is a technique achieved by bracketing different exposures and combining them in Photoshop. This is very difficult to do because when taking the pictures nothing in the frame can move, the camera can't move at all and the photographer also has to have an understanding of a program like Photoshop CS2 or CS3. The final result is a picture that looks like the human eye would see the world. The whole HDR process seems like a hard one to achieve but eventually I would like to take the challenge on and learn how to produce amazing HDR images.

A few websites that I found that had pretty good information on this technique are ;
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm
http://www.popphoto.com/howto/3038/how-to-create-high-dynamic-range-images.html

Another good site that also gives a history on the technique and explanations is ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging


The first photo I chose to demonstrate this technique can be found at this link;
http://flickr.com/photos/seim/474840647/in/set-72157600174238421/

The reason I chose this picture is because it demonstrates that HDR, which is usually seen in landscape shot, can be used in portraiture, wedding and fashion images. It's a lot harder of a process this way though because the people in the image can't move at all. I would like to eventually master this to be used in my own images as I prefer to shoot people and find that this technique with people photography has quite an interesting look.


I really like the next photo which can be found at this link;
http://flickr.com/photos/seim/2145985264/in/set-72157600174238421/

I really like it because normaly in a shot like this you wouldn't see all the detail in the sky. Obviously some burning was also used but now with the HDR technique you can see the detail in everything.


I chose this photo because of the unbelievable detail in both the sky and the land. It is a very good example of HDR imaging

Here is the link;
http://flickr.com/photos/m_o_f/2855654367/in/pool-hdr