When I just started getting interested in photography I discovered many interesting sites and forums on the web. And from time to time I saw this mysterious abbreviation HDR, and very unusual photos under it. And for some time I couldn’t figure out what it is that people do with their photographs that make them “HDR”.
So finally I decided to research this issue and found out what it is, and many different techniques to achieve an HDR image. It has been quite some time now that I have been playing with HDR images and gaining knowledge on the topic.

This is an introductory article into the HDR photography. I won’t discuss now any ethical or ideological questions regarding this issue but only explain what is HDR image.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Seeing this, a beginner photographer will ask himself: “what the hell is this Dynamic Range”? Though this is somewhat complicated question, I’ll try to simplify it having HDR photography in mind.

Dynamic Range
When you shoot a photograph, you set certain exposure time and an f-stop. Let’s say, for example that you are shooting a scene with very dark areas and also very bright areas. In this case if you expose for light areas, in the resulting photograph you will have them correctly exposed and all light details visible while all the dark areas will be plain black. And if you will expose for dark areas, in the resulting photograph you will have the dark areas correctly exposed with all dark details visible, but now white areas will be completely burned (e.g. white, with no details). So dynamic range is how many dark tones and light tones can be seen in the same image without being burned or blackened. If I would take photo of the same scene with two different cameras – one with high dynamic range and another with low dynamic range (with the same exposure and aperture settings), then in the resulting photograph from the first camera I would see more details in very dark and very light areas, while in the photograph from the second camera these areas would be completely black and completely white.

But as high as the dynamic range of any camera can be, it has its limits, and these limits are way below the dynamic range that human eye can see. This fact makes it practically impossible to create photographs of places with high contrast lighting, on which you will be able to see everything your eye saw while taking the photo. For example you are shooting a street with buildings on both sides of it. The sun is lighting the scene so that tops of the buildings on one side of the street are bright but rest of the scene is shadowed. No matter how you will expose, you will either get the building tops in good exposure and all the rest dark with barely visible details or burned building tops with good detail in dark areas. You get the idea. It is always a compromise. Well, not always – you can create an HDR image! This brings us to the second part:

High Dynamic Range image – HDR.
HDR image is created from combining several photos of the same scene taken with different exposures. This merge is done, of course, on the computer with the aid of photo-processing software. So in order to create an HDR image you will have to take several photos (usually not more than three) of the same scene each time shifting exposure by one stop (or 1/2 stop or 3/2 stop – your experience will guide you here). The easiest way (but not always the best) is to make first exposure according to what the camera suggests (using center weighted average meter), second exposure should be one stop below the suggested exposure and the third exposure – one stop above the suggested. Using a tripod is highly recommended so that all three photos will have exactly the same composition without little shifts. These shifts can be somewhat corrected in post-processing though.

In order to create this image I took three photos with exposures spaced by single stop, and then combined them in Photomatix. It is a very easy to use but also very versatile program for creating HDR images. Here I intently exaggerated the HDR effect of the resulting image.

After the photos are created you load them to your computer and use software to create a final HDR image, in which both – light and dark areas of the photograph will have details. One of the most known and used software for creating HDR images is Photomatix. In several recent versions of Photoshop there is also an option for creating HDR images. When this “HDR effect” is used to its extremes, the resulting photos look unreal, like a drawing or painting, but used carefully it helps to bring back the otherwise lost details to photograph without making it look unrealistic.

There are many opinions regarding whether should one use HDR or not. Some people claim that it is not real photography, others use HDR to its extremes creating “paintings” instead of photos. In this article, as I promised I won’t go into this question and just say that I don’t agree with either of these two opinions ☺

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I learned the following tips from two professional photographers I happen to know. These are not the most common tips that any amateur receives like “Try shooting the same frame with different exposures and see what works best” or “To freeze action use fast shutter speed”. These tips are more profound and “rare” as I call them, having more meaning than I can actually explain here, so you will have to rethink for yourself some of them. And one more thing – some of them can be achieved only with SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera.

1. When looking through the viewfinder “scan” with your eye the whole frame.

Human eye is seeing the sharpest only the object that it looks at. All other objects are not in perfect focus. But camera sees all the things that are in the same plane in the same sharpness, and if your aperture fairly small then many more planes will get sharp. So when taking the shot you have to be aware of other “sharp” objects that will be visible in the final photo.

• One way to do this “scan” is to first focus with AF (auto focus) on what you want, and then rotate the manual focus ring just a little bit. It will make the whole frame a little blurred. When everything is blurred your eye will automatically scan the whole frame for something sharp, thus going over the whole frame.
• Another way is just to stare into the view finder for a few seconds, not trying to focus on anything specific. This is something that takes a little practice to master.

2. Use manual focus override to adjust focus to what you need.

Sometimes you need to control the DOF (Depth Of Field) to achieve the desired result. First you focus on your main subject using auto focus, and then while the shutter release button is half-pressed you turn the manual focus override ring to adjust the focus to what you need. Have in mind though that manual focus override is not featured in all lenses. There are cheaper lenses that can work only in automatic or manual mode but not both simultaneously.

3. Initially compose the photo for cropping or adjustments.

Many amateur photographers just shoot the photo and then when they open it in photo-processing software (such as Picasa, Lightroom, Photoshop, ACDSee etc.), and only then, they start thinking what they can do to improve it. Maybe crop it like this? Maybe emphasize a little more shadows? Try to think about these things (especially the crop) before pressing the shutter-release button.  It will make it much easier to perform cropping and other adjustments later. You will also be forced to THINK before you shoot.

4. During the shoot of an event – shoot on manual.

When you are shooting events that happen fast, you can’t afford to mess with camera controls. You can miss the shot of the day that way. So what you can do is: set your camera to aperture priority mode, and choose the desired aperture. Then half press the shutter-release button and on the screen (or inside the viewfinder) you will see the suggested shutter speed. Take a few photos and see if you like what you get (in terms of exposure), if not adjust exposure compensation. After you are satisfied, switch to manual and set the same values of shutter and aperture. From now on shoot on manual during the whole event with the same settings, unless there are drastic changes of light in the scene. I realize that this is kind of “half-tip” and many professional photographers are working only in manual changing between f-stops and exposure automatically to get the best results. But here I am talking about amateurs, like myself, who are not just yet there.

5.Don’t look at the back LCD screen after each photo.

Actually this tip is pretty controversial, but I’ll stick with it. Not looking at the LCD display after taking each shot makes you THINK more before each shot, and also leaves a room for anticipation towards the final images. This is a good exercise, and while it might not be a good idea during an important shoot, I advise to do it wholeheartedly during your everyday shooting. Think of it, if you have this habit of looking at your back screen after each photo, and you are in a scene where everything happens fast, you just might miss an interesting shot while looking at the LCD display.

6. Don’t just convert to b&w – shoot with intention for b&w.

Instead of going over your photographs after a shoot and thinking “Well, this photo might look good in B&W, lets try to convert it!” Shoot the photographs with B&W in mind, think B&W. When shooting B&W, highlights and shadows have more importance, and also other artistic aspects of the photo (such as facial expressions, hand gestures, etc.) stand out more in B&W, because you don’t have the “distraction” of the color. When shooting with B&W in mind you pay more attention to tones (light/dark) than to colors.

7.When shooting people in low light take spot light metering from their skin.

In difficult light conditions, particularly in low light, when using center-weighted average metering most of the chances that you will over-expose your photo. So it would be better to switch to spot metering and take the measure from the skin of the person you are about to shoot. If for some reason it is impossible, then take the measurement from the palm of your hand while placing it in similar lighting.

8. When shooting with slow shutter speeds hand-held, don’t release the shutter button.

When you shoot with slow shutter speed, you have to do everything in your power to reduce the camera shake, so in addition to holding it steady, leaning against the wall etc., when you press the shutter button, don’t press and release it straight away, but press it smoothly leaving your finger on it for a while after you hear the shutter sound. This little trick can improve greatly the outcome. In many ways shooting photos with slow shutter speed is like sniper-shooting a rifle – most of the actions are the same: for example it helps to take a deep breath in, then breath out, and then press the shutter-release.

Well, I hope you’ll find these tips useful and would really like to hear your thoughts about them. I probably will write more on some of these tips in my future articles.

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I bet that some of you had to do this: you had to create a desired size image from a photo. But you needed this new image to be a certain part of the initial photo (with a specific dimensions) but without changing the aspect ratio of the image – so it will still look natural.
Recently I had to create a head-banner for a web site of my friend. He gave me initial image and asked me to make a banner of a size 800×250 pixels from this image. It turned out to be not as simple as I thought at first, but finally I managed to do it. I want to share what I learned and so I created a tutorial.
So here we go:

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