David Lawrence's presentation to the Photography Guild of the Lexington Arts & Crafts Society

1. HDR Photography Basics
What is it…
how do you shoot for it…
and how do you process it.

2. What is “Dynamic Range”
 The Dynamic Range of an image is the
“ratio between the brightest and darkest
parts of the scene.”
An example
of a low
dynamic range.

3. Photos by Trey Ratcliff (http://www.stuckincustoms.com)

4. What is HDR Photography?
 “HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic
Range. It is a post-processing task of
taking either one image or a series of
images, combining them, and adjusting
the contrast ratios to do things that are
virtually impossible with a single aperture
and shutter speed.”
(from Trey Ratcliff, http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr/)

5. What is HDR Photography?
 Humans eyes can see a much wider dynamic
range than a single DSLR image can capture.
HDR photography combines the “highs” and
“lows” of multiple exposures into a single image.
 For me, it is a way to create a photograph that
better captures the highlights (bright whites) and
shadows (the dark blacks) that might get lost
when taking a photo.

10. How to shoot for it…
1. Mount your camera on a tripod
2. Use manual or Aperture Priority mode. Take at least
three exposures: good exposure, under-exposed, and
over-exposed. Number of exposures varies based on
how wide the dynamic range of your scene is.
“I recommend using a camera that has
autobracketing. Autobracketing is the ability for your
camera to take at least 3 pictures right after one
another, each at different exposures. Sometimes it’s
called “Exposure Bracketing”. If you have a DSLR
camera, then you probably already have this ability.”
(www.stuckincustoms.com)

13. How to process it…
Use “HDR” software such as:
• Photomatix Pro
• Nik HDR Efex Pro
• Photoshop 5
A GREAT tutorial can be found at:
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/

14. David’s example
 Now I will demonstrate how to use
Photomatix Pro with three exposures…