I played around with some free HDR software today for the first time. HDR as I understand it as an absolute beginner is portraying a very wide range of intensity levels in a single image. To do this, multiple shots are taken at different exposure levels and then combined to produce a final output.
If you’ve ever tried to capture an image of a sunset with the beach or trees in the foreground you will most likely end up with a very dark foreground and a perfect sunset, mainly because the camera compensates the exposure for the bright sun and speeds up the shutter.
Our eyes are good at displaying an entire scene, cameras are not, that’s why multiple images are needed.
For this sample, I took 8 images with a 1/3 EV (exposure value). There is some blur in some spots due to trees on a windy day reflecting off the car.
I went quite extreme in this example, to the point where it looks totally fake (although a technique often used in car magazines). My background didn’t help much, an unused parking lot would have looked much better.
But notice that the detail in the tires is shown, along with the bright reflections on the car itself. The driveway as well shows the full detail that is washed out on a regular exposed picture.
The third picture is with a little less processing, something more realistic but with the benefits of the full range.
If you look at the roof of the car you will see my biggest mistake with this image. The roof was overexposed in all 8 images, so it stayed like that in the final product.
These are just my first try, my next attempt will be with a landscape shot, with less post processing to achieve something natural.
