Help with potential lighting issues?

[Squidy]

Thanks for the response. By DR I'm guessing you mean dynamic range? (Please correct me if I'm wrong, still new to a lot of terms). The photos Jayson posted are the kind of effect I'd like to achieve and I notice he said he's using grad filters, but I can't help but feel he also has much better gear than I hahaha. Is getting that kind of shot possible on a 650D or would an upgrade be needed etc?

I was tempted to try HDR but not sure where to start. I was told my camera had the HDR option built in, however I can only find nighttime HDR. I've recently (a few months ago anyhow) bought Lightroom, is that good for HDR stuff or would you recommend other software?

Would a variable ND filter help, or would it need to be a grad filter?

[bob williams]

Thanks for the response. By DR I'm guessing you mean dynamic range? (Please correct me if I'm wrong, still new to a lot of terms). The photos Jayson posted are the kind of effect I'd like to achieve and I notice he said he's using grad filters, but I can't help but feel he also has much better gear than I hahaha. Is getting that kind of shot possible on a 650D or would an upgrade be needed etc?

I was tempted to try HDR but not sure where to start. I was told my camera had the HDR option built in, however I can only find nighttime HDR. I've recently (a few months ago anyhow) bought Lightroom, is that good for HDR stuff or would you recommend other software?

Would a variable ND filter help, or would it need to be a grad filter?

Squidy, "DR" Does mean Dynamic Range. Graduated filters are very beneficial when you need to reduce the exposure on the sky while maintaining adequate exposre on the landscape and are probably more beneficial than a variable ND in this case. The variable ND simply gives you the option of adjusting the amount of light entering the lens by the adjusted amount---The variable NDs are also very expensive. Yes they are good for many things including reducing exposure enough to allow blurring of waterfalls, waves etc, but you can also achieve the same effect from a regular ND if you purchase the correct one for the job at far less cost.

Lightroom does not provide you any options or adjustments for HDR unless you have a plug-in for it such as HDR EFX pro (which I highly recommend) or you can go with standalone software such as Photomatix, which is also very good industry standard software. True HDR is accomplsihed through multiple exposures, at different exposures, of the same scene; then combined with software and adjusted to taste. Most HDR software also has options for "pseudo-hdr" effects from a single image.

Since you already have Lightroom, I recommend you download a 30 day trial version of HDR EFX PRO. Be sure to read the tutorials and watch a couple of thier videos.----HDR is Fun.

Good luck and Have fun

Bob