Sometimes, when you create what you thought would be a great HDR landscape, the sky, with its clouds, appears very contrasty, dirty, and ugly. The tone mapping process using a local operator such as the Detail Enhancer in Photomatix Pro, can sometime exaggerate the realism … Read More →
Category Archives: Technical
Mixing Warm and Cool Light Sources
When shooting interiors, and relying on HDR to solve the lighting challenge, not only do you need to balance the luminance values of the outside light and the interior light, but you also need to balance the light temperatures from the two or more light … Read More →
HDR Flower Photography
HDR is great for photographing flowers, especially doing macro photography. The HDR effect on flowers in the details can be exquisite. And it gives great latitude for your creative expression. This image was made from three exposures, two stops apart. I tone mapped them in … Read More →
Ghosting and Photomatix Pro 4
Ghosting happens in HDR images when something moves. For example, leaves in a tree blow in the wind and are captured in different positions in the different exposures. When those exposures are merged and tonemapped, the ghosting appears. Ideally, when photographing trees, I want to … Read More →
Don’t Throw It Away
If you expect your HDR software to effortlessly make perfect photographs out of our multiple exposures, you will have a lot wasted images. Your HDR files may come out flat, with incorrect color casting, with artifacts, ghosting and halos. In fact, the corrected image above … Read More →
HDR Sunrise
Sunrises and sunsets are a great subject for HDR photography. The beautiful colors of the sky are not washed out and you can still get the correct exposure in the foreground. HDR is definitely the way to go. The image above is a final version … Read More →
When Shadows Are Still Too Dark
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, HDR images don’t come out the way we hope. There is usually a reason, like the example I’m about to give you — not checking the histogram. In this case my most over-exposd image did not capture all of the … Read More →
HDR and the Range of Light
Is HDR, and all the extra steps it entails, really necessary? Well, here is the dilemma. The human eye can perceive a range of light that far exceeds what can be captured on film, or by a digital sensor. On a typical, bright sunny day, … Read More →
High Definition HDR Photography
High Definition Photography is a relative term, but it basically is achieved by using great camera gear and also by breaking a large scene into several sections, and photographing each section separately. This makes it possible for the photographer to get more detailed information on … Read More →