HDR Photography

HDR: Making impossible shots possible


If you've ever been faced with photography situations with extreme contrasts, you know that basically, you're out of luck. Say, for example, you are taking a photo out of the door of a building.

You have to make a hard choice; are you going to expose for the outdoors? If so, you end up with something like this:

img_2510.jpg

... And your indoors are completely useless and dark.

Alternatively, you can decide to expose for the light inside the building:

img_2514.jpg

But clearly, that's hardly going to do much good either.

The solution is HDR photography, where you combine a series of exposures:

hdr.jpg

Into one single exposure:

img_2508_hdr.jpg

Okay, so I'm more than happy to admit that this quick example (shot with the Triggertrap Mobile Long Exposure HDR mode using my iPhone to control my Canon EOS 550D - that was what I was testing when I did this one) is hardly the finest example of creative HDR ever created - in fact, it's a distinctly rubbish picture. Nonetheless, it reminded me how powerful HDR can be, and how it completely changes the game for what is possible in photography.

Time for a week-end project?

So, If you've never given it a go before, make it your week-end project: You can easily do a manual HDR set by changing the settings on your camera between each shot; or use the Automatic Bracketing feature built into most cameras to get a 3-shot bracketed set.

And if that isn't enough for you (for example, if you're instead itching to do a 13-exposure HDR for some crazy reason), there are automated solutions that'll do the exposures for you, including Triggertrap Mobile or Promote.

For an in-depth guide on HDR photography, check out the Pixiq Ultimate Guide to HDR Photography!