HDR - Help & Advice.

[SimonGarlick]

Hi, I'm a bit of a novice photographer, and the concept of High Dynamic Range photography is relatively new to me, but something I'm wanting to explore.

I currently only use a Sony Digital Compact, but it has the ability for longer or shorter exposures, and after a quick bit of online research, I found that Photoshop has the ability to Merge to HDR. Does anyone have any experience of how effective this is, or any tips?

I'm guessing ideally, you'd need an SLR camera with the ability built in. But considering HDR can produce such beautiful shots, it's something I'm keen to explore further.

Thanks for any help or advice.

Regards,
Simon

 

[emorydunn]

As long as you can control exposure compensation on the camera you should be able to make an HDR. Check if your Sony can do Auto Bracketing (most P&S's can't) because if you can it will do most of the work for you.

But, regardless of what camera you have all you need are three (or more) pictures of the same subject with different exposures; under, over, and correct.

As for software, Photoshop will work but I've found that Photomatix does a much better job and is easier to use. It does cost a bit of money and you'll have to learn a new programme but I think it's worth it if you want to do lots of HDR.

One other thing that is more important that the camera or software is the right scene though. You can't make an HDR out of just any scene, what you are looking for is something that has a really bright and a really dark area and enough contrast in between that you couldn't normally capture it with one exposure.

Check out the HDR thread for a ton of examples (both good and bad) as well as some tips. Also here is a great tutorial on HDR: http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/ (from the HDR thread).