Earlier today I downloaded the Photomatix application from the hdrsoft website. While I was installing the application I was reading their site and found that they provide samples of bracketed photos. I downloaded these too and used them as I went through the tutorial. Below are the two final images from my first experiment with the application using the sample images.

My next task will be to take some bracketed photos and to create my very own HDR images. This is very exciting as I sometimes find myself getting frustrated when I can’t get all detail in high contrast images.

While I was browsing Flickr this morning I came across a group dedicated to HDR. The images in the group look interesting, my curiosity spiked. But firstly, what is HDR? HDR refers to “high dynamic range”, take a few shots with ranging exposures and merge them together. This sounds like a great technique when photographing a high contrast scene where the highlights are blown out or the shadows are dark and flat.

I have much to learn about the exact methods behind this technique and will continue to find out more. Here are some links of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/discuss/40580/
http://www.hdrsoft.com/index.html

At hdrsoft there are two options, their standalone application or a plugin for Photoshop CS2. The HDR group on Flickr mentions that many of it’s members prefer the standalone application, so I think I will try this one first.

Enough with the sitting on my bum at the computer, time to go out and shoot some high contrast scenes.

This image is from the hdrsoft website. More HDR examples can be found on the hdrsoft examples page.