Quote Originally Posted by bburns223
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. I don't know the details but I think it's basically a mode of shooting that shows more vibrant colors, in short.

In a nutshell, that's it. Here's my attempt at a rundown:


You camera can only perceive a certain range of highlights and shadows - This is what's called dynamic range - The overall range of "brightness" that your camera can record, typically 7-9 stops. Anything that is out of your camera's dynamic range is recorded as pitch black (shadows) or blown white (highlights).


HDR is a technique used in digital photography to expand dynamic range beyond the native 7-9 stop range of your camera. You can record 2 or more images at different exposure settings of the same scene. Using your camera's auto exposure bracketing function, you can shoot 3 images of different exposure settings in a quick burst. Once you have captured the images, you can merge them all together in a program like Photoshop and Photomatix to form an HDR image. Imagine your editing software layering each of the differently-exposed images on top of each other, like a sandwich. First, it puts on the dark image, then the lighter one, then another, etc, and after a short processing time, you are left with an image with a very high dynamic range. Get it?


This technique is frequently employed in landscape and architectural photography. HDR is especially useful in capturing a scene while maintaining detail in the dark shadows as well as in the bright highlights. In architectural photography, HDR is useful for shooting indoors while maintaining detail in the bright highlights out a window, for example.

I would highly suggest using a tripod when shooting high dynamic range images - This will keep your framing consistent and will result in sharper images than without using a tripod. Also, adjust the look of your HDR images to personal taste - Most HDR software provides you with options to tweak your image to match what you have in mind. For instance, I prefer images that do not look like processed HDR images - I always strive for more "real" looking images. I'm not saying I'm perfect - Many of my HDR images are very "artificial"-looking.



Enjoy this cool photographic technique. Shoot, shoot, shoot, and have fun.


- Alex