In this section of the tutorial I’d like to talk a little about the Theory behind High Dynamic Range photography and what we want to achieve.
HDR Theory
Before we begin processing, you’re going to need a photo.
Pick a subject that actually has Dynamic Range!
In a nutshell a Dynamic Range is the range of luminance between the darkest areas of a photo and the lightest. The reason you’re taking Multiple Exposures is so you can capture the entire range instead of just one part of it.
Original
HDR
This photo is a prime example of what HDR photography can do when you pick a subject that has Dynamic Range. I took this photo standing inside our hotel room looking out onto the balcony and beyond, so it has lots of shadows and lots of highlights. If you pick a subject that has only one of these the photo won’t have much dynamic range at all.
Don’t move dirt bag!
I won’t tell you how to take your photo’s. Photography is an art form, beauty is in the eye of the beholder blah blah blah… However I will talk to you about the importance of making sure that the camera is as stable as possible when taking the shots. In the checklist section I mentioned that you will need a sturdy tripod, the reason for this is that you’re going to be taking three photographs or more in quick succession so any movement the camera or subject undertakes while shooting will cause the HDR to “Ghost” when it’s compiled.
Ghosting and noise are the biggest problems to overcome when taking your photo’s but there are a few things you can do to combat them. Using a remote or setting the self timer will reduce vibrations, it also helps to be patient and wait for the moment when you know there will be minimal movement between shots. I have written a mini tutorial on how to Combat Ghosting so check it out.
Jpeg vs. RAW
When it comes to file formats if your camera can shoot in RAW then do it. There really is no comparison between the two, with JPEG any errors in the initial shot will be almost impossible to correct. i.e colour casts, exposure problems. Also shooting RAW is the best way to safe guard against ghosting as you can always create a HDR using Photoshop’s powerful RAW editing tool to create the exposures.
Show your camera whose in charge!
Always shoot in aperture priority mode, this is important because we don’t want the depth of field to change as we take our pictures! The only time I take the camera out of AP is when I’m shooting long exposures then I change to Manual mode.
To set up your camera to shoot HDR you will need to change a few settings on your SLR.
Below is a guide for setting up exposure bracketing on the Nikon D90.
Hold down the BKT button (under the flash pop up button) on the front of the camera and then look at the top screen.
Use the main command wheel to cycle through the options, I selected 3.0 which means the camera will take 3 frames. Many DLSR’s can shoot in more than 3 with the average being between 5 and 9.
Use the sub command wheel to cycle through the exposure stop options, I always use 5 stops between exposures to make sure I capture as much light as I can.
Now go into the cameras settings and go to the custom menu section then select the following;
Now that you’ve set up your camera get out there and start shooting.
Listen to your Heart, Sorry. I mean your Histogram.
I can’t count how many times I would take a series of exposures thinking they would make a great HDR then getting home and finding out they were complete crap. Using the histogram is probably the closest thing you can get to a preview of how good your High Dynamic Range photos will become once compiled.
If you want to learn how to understand histograms visit this website
Click below to go to page 3 