HDR Photography

To-Do Date: Apr 19 at 11:59pm

Again,  you are not required to use this process for this weeks photographs.  I am sharing it with you as an option that may come in handy when you are photographing.  HDR is a way to create multiple photographs of a scene that has a bright highlights and deep shadows.  This combination makes it difficult for your camera meter to read the light in the scene.  Typically which ever is the biggest element - the highlight area or the shadow area - will overpower the scene and your camera meter will base its exposure on that area.

HDR works best when you use a tripod.  I have seen it used successful with a hand held camera but not using a tripod may cause slight discrepancies between images when you blend the images together.  You may end up with an image that isn't a sharp as you like.

With HDR photography you photograph the same scene multiple times at different exposures, exposures that correctly meter the highlights and exposures that correctly meter the shadows, then combine all the exposures together in Photoshop to make one image that has detail in the highlights and detail in the shadows.

While using the HDR process may correct a tricky lighting situation it may also create a flat and unrealistic image.  Try out the process but remember it is a tool that isn't always the right tool to use.