HDR - High Dynamic Range Tutorial

High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or HDR) is a set of methods used in imaging and photography, to allow a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging methods or photographic methods. In other words you want to get as much detail out of the shadow and highlight areas of the image. So by combining all the multiple exposure images, you will get the best detail results.

STEP 1
Start with 3 images (you can have more mulitple exposures) - one normal exposure, the second underexposed and the third overexposed. Set the bracketing on my camera to 1 stop apart. You dont want to change the Aperture as that will change the Depth Of Field, but you can change the Shutter Speed of the ISO. Then set the shooting mode to burst. When you hold the shutter down, 3 photos will be captured. Shoot in RAW mode for the widest possible dynamic range. You can still create HDR if your camera doesn't support RAW. Make sure you shoot in Aperture Priority or in Manual. You want to bracket the exposure time, not the Aperture.

STEP 2
Choose File/Automate/Merge to HDR Pro. Choose either images or folder. Turn on Auto Align, (Photoshop SC3 uses new Auto-Align technology that even allows you to create HDR without the use of a tripod!). Click OK.

STEP 3
If you did not use RAW files, Photoshop will let you know that files converted from Camera Raw format (JPGs) may loose dynamic range. So for best results, rather merge the original Camera Raw files or DNG file formats. Let Photoshop merge your files.

STEP 4
Once Photoshop merges the image, Merge to HDR Pro will open up with your images. Notice the default Bit mode is 16 Bit.

In the Edge Glow options, the Radius determines how much of the pixels will be affected by the edge glow and the Strength slider will determine how much contrast there is in the glow.
If you want to add some contrast then use the Gamma slider - increase it by moving the slider tothe left or decrease the contrast by moving the slider to the right. Use Exposure to brighten or darken your image. Use the Shadows slider to lighten or darken the shadows. Highlights allows you to increase or lighten the highlight areas or decrease the lightest areas of your images. The Detail slider makes your images look sharper.

The Colour tab allows you to change the colour using Vibrance and Saturation.
Vibrance is really great as it ignores flesh tones in your image. If you want to change the saturation equally through the entire image then use the Saturation slider. You can also adjust the tone curve of the image by clicking on the curve line to change the contrast further.

Your image could have what is called artifacts, this happens when things move between the multiple exposures. However you can now turn on Remove Ghost to remove the ghosting effect to removes these unwanted effects. You can also select which exposure you want to chose from by clicking on the thumbnails at the bottom of you dialog box.

You can save the changes as a preset to be applied to another image or load already saved presets. You can also use Presets that comes with Photoshop but clicking on the drop down menu. Click OK once you are happy with your results and then Photoshop will merge the images into a 16 Bit image.

If however you only have one image and you want to apply HDR effects then go to Image/Adjustments/HDR Toning.

Hope you enjoy this tut!