Assignment #10 High Dynamic Range Photography

This week's assignment is to create a High Dynamic Range image with the help of Adobe Photoshop or Photomatix Pro. As we discussed in class, HDR is used to expand the amount of light information in an image far beyond what is possible with a single exposure by combining multiple captures that are created over a wide range of exposures.

Some of the recommended HDR capture techiniques include using a tripod and setting your camera to auto-exposure bracketing, processing a single raw file in multiple exposures with 5 images at 2 stop intervals for landscapes and 1/2 stop intervals for portraits. Make sure to keep your aperture setting the same through all exposures so as not to change your depth of field. Instead adjust your shutter speed. It's always best to keep a low ISO to keep down the noise.

Once you've got your exposures creating a HDR image is fairly simple, with nearly endless possibilities to adjust the image to your own personal taste. We'll start with Photoshop:

1. Use the File-Automate-Merge to HDR function to load your files.
2. Adjust the white point setting to your liking, feel free to try turning on and off layers, click OK.
3. Duplicate your file.
4. Converting it to 16 bit will open the HDR conversion dialogue box, allowing you to adjust the Exposure and Gamma, as well as adjust the Toning Curve and Histogram under the Local Adaptation method. Click OK when you've got something you like.

Photomatix is an indepent program which is made specifically for creating and tone mapping HDR images. Here's how we do it:

1. Drag and drop your files onto the Photomatix icon, select Generate an HDR image, and say ok through all of the dialogue boxes using the default settings.
2. When your new HDR image opens, click the Tone Mapping button in the new dialogue box.
3. Explore the many options in Details Enhancer and Tone Compressor settings.
4. Click Process when you're done and save your file as a 16 bit Tiff.

You'll notice some differences in the results from each process right away. Feel free to explore both if you're able to get your hands on a copy of Photomatix. Keep in mind tha HDR has become a highly commercialized look so have fun pushing it to a new artist level.