Lately HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography and the associated processing has got my attention after some brief dabbling in it a couple of years ago. I spent some time perusing a few HDR post processing applications, including the HDR Merge function that comes with PhotoShop.

I got roped in to Photomatix Pro and the “Tone Mapping” utility. It was the one that had the most available samples and workflows posted online that I could find. Topaz Adjust is another one you might want to consider that can yield some very stylized results similar to Photomatix Pro. Both are contenders.

Some solid hours of practice and experimenting is going to show you that although you can save settings on any outcome as a preset to the name of your choice, you’ll find that each photo is going to be different from the next. I’ll bet too that the first thing you find a problem is “haloing” particularly in skies where branches and power lines can also look embossed in the sky. You’ll be able to solve that in time with experience using the adjustments. One of following will help, but it not always the same for every photo; Light Smoothing, Luminescence and or Highlight Smoothing.

Like any first time experiences with HDR Tone Mapping, you’ll tend to push it for the really cool looking stylized effect that’s so hard to resist. One thing is for certain, it pushes out the details everywhere very effectively.

Best results are had using photos with a long DOF (Depth of Field) where everything is in focus from front to back. That means a wide angle lens set to it’s widest possible focal length. It’s not to say you can’t do shots with narrower DOF.

It’s a ton of fun and makes some of the most seemingly simple scenes and items come to life. It can easily give any image a “have to look” feel.

One thing you need to get used to with taking photos for HDR, it to consider scenes with less than favorable light because the HDR post processing solves it. I really had to wrap my head around that. Now just about anything goes. It’s hard to do any wrong.

Here’s are some prelims for your consideration back at my Art Of Seeing gallery online.

Now go out and find something you weren’t looking for.

Best regards,

Marc