Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What is an HDR Part 2 - the shoot

How to take the pictures for an HDR

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HDR Photography

HDR Photography Creating high dynamic range images involves a little planning and setup time, but the results can be wonderful. Here's a step-by-step approach to help you ease into creating HDR images.

1. Bracketing
Setup your camera to bracket 3 or more images. Ensure that your bracket covers the entire range of light that is present in the scene.

2. White Balance
Set your white balance to whatever the scene requires, but don't use auto.

3. Mount the camera on a tripod.
Having a stable base for your camera is very important and means less alignment issues in post productions. While hand-held HDR is very possible, and many people create very successful images with this technique, having a sturdy tripod will give you the best results. If you have a model in the scene, just ask them to hold as still as possible for a few seconds.

4. Cable Release
Attach the Cable release, or set the camera to use the self timer. You do not want to touch the camera at all. Even the slightest movement can cause alignment issues with your final images.

5. Switch the camera to aperture priority and make your aperture F8 This step is only to give you a direction in where to begin, let me add that some people prefer to actually shoot at smaller apertures, experiment, and adapt this step to your workflow.

6. Mirrior Lock-up
When bracketing your shutter speeds may get very slow and the mirrior can cause vibrations that blur the image. Mirrior lock-up helps you to avoid the mirrior slap that creates this.

7. Shoot
Now, just take your series of photographs! You have successfully just captured a set of images that will merge into an hdr picture

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