HDR Experimentation

HDR stands for 'High Dynamic Range'. It is a technique that works really well with landscape photography. For my experiment I used photographs I had taken of the sky, wanting to capture the movement of the clouds. I was interested in the effect that the movement would create in the final image.

Here are some examples of HDR photography:

I took three photos of the same subject, at three different exposures. One over exposed by one stop, one at 'correct' exposure, and one underexposed by one stop. I used a tripod to ensure that the images were all exactly the same, so they would align correctly.

Unfortunately, the lens of the camera that I was using had not been kept properly, and so had dust and hairs actually inside of the lens which ruined the images. When I get a new lens I should retake these pictures.

Below are my three original images.

Overexposed

Correctly Exposed

Underexposed

After importing the images to my computer, I used the 'merge to HDR' option in Photoshop to create a HDR image. This is the resultant image.

I didn't feel that this image had the correct 'HDR' feel. This could be due to my subject matter, or to the movement of the clouds, or perhaps my images were exposed wrong. To try to improve the contrast between the sky and clouds, I used Levels to make the darks darker. 

I feel that this picture was much more successful, but I need further experimenting in order to achieve a well done HDR photo.