How To Shoot HDR Images With Your Digital Camera

Hey Everyone, I’ve been receiving a lot off questions on HDR lately. I’ll give you a quick idea on how I shoot HDR on an overcast day or in very dimly lit situations. First of all HDR is the process of shooting multiple bracketed exposures of a subject. I usually shoot three exposures. The first exposure I take is at my normal light meter reading. I then take a second exposure at anywhere from  one to two stops underexposed and a third exposure at one to two stops overexposed. This is totally dependent on how contrasty the lighting is at the time. With lower contrasting light I bracket one stop over and one stop under.  You can get by with just 2 exposures under flat lighting.

Under higher contrast lighting I go two stops over and two stops under. I then combine the images in photoshop and use layers adjustments and layer masks to pull the best detail from each exposure. I also use a software called Photomatix on occasion if I am looking for a funkier look. If your camera is equipped with a feature called AEB (auto exposure bracketing) this is quite easy to do.  I recommend using a tripod. However, if you are shooting a brightly lit subject and have a steady hand you can shoot hand held using AEB if your shutter speed is at 250th of a second or higher.

Here are a couple of examples of some shots I took at the Oregon Coast recently. The exposure times were quit lengthy and I did use a tripod.

Below are the 3 original exposures I used to create the example above.

Bandon Beach has some very interesting rock cave that can be accessed during low tides. The lighting is quite extreme from inside the caves to the outside surf and it would be impossible to capture the full dynamic range of the lighting without shooting several bracketed exposures. I made this HDR image using three exposures with exposure times as long as 2 minutes for the overexpose image and 30 seconds for the underexpose exposure.

Below are the 3 images I combined to create the image above.

I hope this clears up some of your questions on taking HDR images with your digital camera. I realize this a brief and simple explanation to a style of shooting that can only be perfected with a lot of practice and some basic knowledge on how to use PhotoShop..  

I’ll be leaving on my annual 2 week bike tip to Sturgis in a day or two and I’ll be covering 10 states with camera in hand. I be posting a lot of new images with all the information on how they were done, so stop back by or subscribe to my RSS feed for all my newest and coolest updates.

Till next time, Peace and Happiness, Terry