Case Study 10: HDR Photography

HDR image (high dynamic range) is made up of three exposures merged into one. Take one underexposed shot, one normal shot and one overexposed shot. Then use 'Photomatix' tool to merge them together.

In D5000, go to custom menu screen and look for AE Bracketing. Then select one of the given options depending upon the light conditions... For shots above, I chose AE0.7 and clicked three shots. 

Here is the final product after merging my three shots into one. What makes HDR image so appealing:

* Darker Exposure retains Image DETAILS especially in case of clouds instead brighter ones like +0.7 makes it just white.

* Brighter image HIGHLIGHTS darker regions like buildings roads above.

* When we merge these three images at different exposure, it provides us the details and highlights. And a perfect HDR.  

* Please pardon the shake in the final product... because I didn't use tripod to take different exposure images... and these pics have little deviation from each other as far as frame is concerned. Note: Use tripod for the HDR... it is must.

* It is difficult to explain each and every option there in Photomatix... so either try and test. I am learning too and will be sharing if found something interesting.

* Photomatix gives various options to choose from as final product. Some of them are quite dramatized which personally I don't like so I selected the appropriate one.

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