HDR Photography

Today I read this tutorial on HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. (You should click on the link to see some REALLY gorgeous examples!) It is a really, really cool technique, combining multiple photographs at different exposures to really bring out the details in the image. At a high exposure, the camera records the details in the shadows, but the highlights get blown out, and vice versa at a low exposure. The Photomatix program puts the images together so that we can see all these details at once--much like our eyes and brains are able to process all the details we see, light or dark, at the same time. I cannot justify spending the money on Photomatix right now, but I did download the trial version. Since it's just a trial, it left a Photomatix watermark on my image. But here is my first little attempt at an HDR image:



(the best of multiple 'before' images)




(after--the HDR image)


It's amazing how much more detail is visible. It truly is much more like how the eye sees the world. Here are zoomed in portions of the two images so you can see the detail a little better:



(before)




(after)