Getting started with HDR. A presentation first delivered at Bar Camp Boston.

1. Getting Started With HDR
Photography
Stanton Champion
@spchampion
spchampion@gmail.com
flickr.com/spchampion
500px.com/spchampion
stantonchampion.com

2. HDR = High Dynamic Range

3. Why High Dynamic Range
 Your camera captures a range of light for an
exposure, but it has limits
 If your subject is outside this limited light
range, your camera can’t capture it

4. HDR Compresses the Dynamic Range
Take several photos
and use software to
compress the dynamic
range so that it can be
displayed or printed

5. What Do You Need?
You:
 Basic knowledge of photography
 Controlling Exposure
 Shutter
 ISO
 Aperture
 Histogram
 An Imagination

6. What Do You Need?
Digital Camera:
 Anything with manual exposure control
 RAW support is preferable (but not required)
 JPGs are not ideal for HDR, but usable in a pinch
 Exposure bracketing is nice to have

7. What Do You Need?
Software:
 HDR software
 Photomatix (most popular)
 HDR Efex Pro
 Photoshop
 Topaz Adjust
 A DAM like Lightroom, Aperture, or Capture
One is very helpful
 Photoshop is very nice to have for post-editing

8. Take 1* or more photos of a subject
* - Yes, you can do HDR with just 1 photo.
Topaz Adjust is a great tool for this.
theo0023 on Flickr

9. Typically, take 3 – 7 photos of the
same scene
 Each photo has a different exposure
 Minimize camera movement between exposures

10. Why take more exposures?
HDR narrows the dynamic range
Histograms get shifted & stretched,
for better or for worse
More Data & More Range = Cleaner Results

11. Avoid movement in the frame
between or during your exposures
Movement can create an effect called
“ghosting” which is often unattractive
Bandit Queen on Flickr

12. Editing
Download the photos from your camera
 Tagging
 Categorization
Do not edit and crop yet

13. Editing
 Apply Lens Correction and Noise Reduction
to all photos
 Need the photos to be similar for HDR
transformation
 Do not apply any other edits!
 Cropping
 Sharpening
 Color tweaking
 Cleanup
 Etc.

14. Export to HDR Application
Convert to TIFF and import all photos into
your HDR app

15. And Then… So Many Controls
Photomatix can be a bit daunting…
Trial & Error can yield compelling
effects
The right answer is the one that
expresses your creative vision!

16. Use Available Presets
 Try different presets to learn the controls
 Great way to artistically explore a photo

17. More Help Getting Started
Process controls the HDR develop mode
 Tone Mapping can be more surreal
 Exposure Fusion is a little tamer

18. In Tonemap mode…
More or Less HDR Effect
Scene Contrast
Makes the Lighting Surreal

19. Cleanup Afterwards
Use Photoshop to Cleanup
Remove ghosting
Remove HDR artifacts
Now You Can Edit:
Cropping
Color Tweaking
Noise Reduction
Sharpening

20. Stuff to Avoid – Noise
HDR can take darker areas and brighten
them, revealing a lot of noise
Noise is the devil
 Get to know noise reduction software
 Shoot at low ISO

21. Stuff to Avoid – Halos
 Don’t push contrast so much that dark objects
develop “halos” against bright backgrounds
AdamSelwood on Flickr

22. Stuff to Avoid – Contrast Inversion
Bright stuff becomes dark & dark stuff
becomes bright
Sunlit clouds are
darker than the
stones
Alexandre Buisse & Luminous Landscape

23. Resources – Stuck in Customs
Trey Ratcliff
 Full time HDR photographer
 Fantastic HDR tutorials
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

24. Resources – Farbspiel’s HDR
Cookbook
Klauss Herrmann
http://farbspiel-photo.com/learn/hdr-
cookbook

25. Questions?