HDR photography may seem complex, but it is a surprisingly simple tool that can open new photographic doors. Most people have encountered HDR photography without thinking about it since smartphones automatically produce HDR images.

HDR photography allows you to capture all values within a scene, showing more detail than you would otherwise get. Whether documenting interior spaces for real estate images or creating dramatic landscape art, HDR photography can help you get the most out of your camera and photographs. This guide will walk you through how and when to use this technique and the tools you will need along the way.

Table of Contents

What is HDR Photography?

Before diving into how and when to use HDR in your photographs, it’s essential to understand what HDR means and why it matters. HDR stands for high dynamic range. Breaking it down further, dynamic range refers to the difference between the darkest dark and lightest light within a scene. Cameras are limited in how much dynamic range they can capture — and it is much less than our eyes can see. HDR photography is a technique used to capture the full value range within high-contrast scenes, providing all highlight and shadow information in a single image.

As an example of dynamic range in photography, picture a scene with the sun shining on a snowy mountainside with dark rocks jutting out of the snow in shaded areas. This scene has a large dynamic range between the shadows and highlights. You typically have to choose whether to expose the snow or the rocks and end up with either blown-out highlights or solid black dark areas. This results in no texture or detail in one of those areas, which is undesirable. However, with HDR photography, you can capture that vast dynamic range in a single photo.

There are a few ways to accomplish HDR photography, which will be covered later. But all methods rely on merging multiple images that are exposed for different parts of a scene. Some methods are automatic, so you don’t even realize your camera is taking numerous photos. Your smartphone is an example of this. Other methods require manual work on your part.

When Should You Use HDR Photography Techniques?

HDR techniques expand the dynamic range beyond what a camera can capture in a single frame. They allow you to capture and even enhance detail across the entire luminance range. As a result, HDR photography is a handy tool for any high-contrast scene, though it can also be a stylistic choice.

HDR photography is most frequently used in three genres: Landscape, architectural, and interior photography (such as real estate). All three often include high-contrast scenarios, limiting what you can capture in a single image. When photographing landscapes, it is common to deal with bright skies and dark foregrounds, especially during sunrise and sunset. Likewise, exterior architectural shots will likely involve dark buildings with sunny skies. Capturing all the desired detail in one shot is challenging in the best conditions and sometimes outright impossible, but HDR opens up more possibilities of what you can document.

Interior photography can be even more dramatic than landscapes or exterior architectural work regarding dynamic range. Darker interior spaces with bright windows offer challenging exposure situations. Without HDR photography, windows will be blinding white voids, which is especially problematic if you are attempting to showcase a view. Another possibility is well-exposed windows but excessively dark interiors, which won’t show off the space.

You’ll notice that the three genres mentioned all feature minimal movement of subjects in the frame. The images you take to create an HDR image will be merged, so anything that moves over the course of those images will appear multiple times in the final HDR shot or cause ghosting. Because of this, HDR is not great for portraiture, wildlife, street photography, or other similar genres.

Necessary Equipment for HDR Photography

Although HDR photography may sound complex, it doesn’t require much in terms of equipment. The only requirement is a sturdy tripod. As mentioned above, movement throughout creating an HDR image is problematic, which also holds in regard to camera movement. Because of this, you’ll want to keep your camera on a tripod when creating HDR photographs.

Although not a requirement, a wireless remote (or app that functions as such) may also come in handy. Touching the camera to release the shutter, even with a tripod, can result in slight camera movements. This is especially true if you are using long shutter speeds.

Bracketing Settings for HDR Photography

The basics of HDR photography are straightforward to learn. To create an HDR image, you’ll need to take multiple pictures of the same scene with different exposure settings, a technique called exposure bracketing. This process results in some overexposed, properly exposed, and underexposed images. You can create HDR images from as little as three brackets or as many as nine or more. Which number is best depends on the scene and the HDR style you are going for, though three to five is the most common.

There are two ways to bracket for HDR photography: Manually or using Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) settings. To manually bracket, you will need to adjust the exposure using ISO or shutter speed for as many shots as you require. You won’t want to bracket with aperture, as this will change the depth of field in each bracket and will not result in a sharp final result. Alternatively, you can use the exposure compensation setting (many cameras offer a dial) to change your exposure. Typically, bracketing involves consistent stops between each frame, though this isn’t necessarily a requirement. You could underexpose by one stop and overexpose by two if the situation calls for it.

While manual bracketing works perfectly fine, most cameras will offer automatic exposure bracketing (AEB) settings to make the process faster and easier. You can even set most cameras to take all the bracketed shots with one press of the shutter instead of taking each bracket one by one. This is ideal because, as mentioned, any movement in the frame or of the camera can cause issues when merging your brackets. So, the faster you take your bracketed images, the better.

A camera’s AEB mode requires you to choose a number of bracketed images along with the exposure value (EV) between each shot. The EV number indicates how many stops will be between each frame. Each camera manufacturer offers different settings, though most will provide bracketing options of three, five, or nine frames. EV options typically include 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 stops. Certain EV settings may limit the number of brackets you can take. For example, on the Sony a7 III, at 3.0 EV, you can bracket a max of five images, while at 1.0 EV and lower, you can bracket up to nine frames.

As with the number of brackets, there aren’t any hard and fast rules for how many stops to bracket. Different situations call for different settings, and the final look you are after will also dictate which is best. That said, one full stop is typically the best bet.

Other Camera Settings for HDR Photography

Beyond AEB modes, there are a few other important considerations for camera settings. As mentioned earlier, you will want your aperture to remain consistent throughout the bracketed sequence to avoid any changes in depth of field. Because of this, it is most common to bracket with the camera set to Aperture Priority mode. This will result in the camera changing the shutter speed while maintaining a constant aperture. If you want your ISO to remain consistent, turn off auto ISO and choose the best value for the scene.

Just as you don’t want any changes to the depth of field, you also won’t want any focus shifts throughout a bracketed sequence. So, to avoid this, set your focus before starting your brackets and then switch it to manual focus.

How To Create HDR Photos In Camera

Many cameras offer built-in HDR settings, allowing you to create an HDR image right in the camera. The camera will do all the work for you, including the bracketing and file-merging process. You’ll end up with a fully processed HDR file immediately.

Each camera manufacturer will offer different options and settings for this. For example, Sony’s HDR mode requires .JPG as the file format. Then, you can select between 1.0 and 6.0 EV or Auto EV. Nikon allows you to save the RAW files of the individual shots used to create the HDR image and provides an additional option to adjust how much the boundaries between images are smoothed. Canon offers a special setting built for moving subjects. Be sure to refer to your particular camera’s manual or menus to see your options for in-camera HDR photography.

How To Create HDR Photos Using Software

The most common way to create HDR images is by using software to merge bracketed shots on a computer. To create an HDR image using software, you’ll load a bracketed set into your chosen software. The program will then merge them together into one file, pulling in relevant details from all values. Most HDR software will provide a range of settings to fine-tune the HDR look; you don’t necessarily need to create a dramatic, highly textured HDR image.

There are many programs available to tackle the merging process. Photomatix is one of the more popular options, as it is extremely powerful, fast, and full of valuable features. It offers lots of controls for fine-tuning the look of your HDR images, along with presets to get you started. Plus, it allows for automated batch processing, ideal for an entire shoot of HDR images, such as real estate work.

Luminar Neo is another excellent option, and you’ll also get access to Luminar Neo’s advanced editing tools once you have your HDR image. Or, for a free option, Luminance HDR is surprisingly powerful and versatile despite the fact that it’s free. You can also merge bracketed images to create an HDR photo in Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion

Although HDR often gets a bad rap, it can be a handy tool. It can allow for even more creativity in your images, but it also serves practical purposes. The key to HDR photography is dialing in bracketing settings for each situation and developing your desired look using HDR software. Perfecting this method may take time, but it is an invaluable skill for landscape, architectural, and interior photographers.

Image credits: Header image by Jeremy Gray. All other photos by Abby Ferguson.

The event is a fundraiser for Portland Track

“Mikaël Kingsbury, Olympic Freestyle skier” by Finn O’Hara. Professional Winner, Sports.

The 20th anniversary of the International Photography Awards (IPA) brings together a stunning collection of images from professional and amateur photographers around the world. Tens of thousands of images underwent a rigorous evaluation by an international panel of judges before winners were selected in diverse categories like People, Nature, Advertising, and Fine Art. While all the photographers created incredible imagery, two were singled out from the 22 category winners for special awards.

Thomas Broening was named IPA Photographer of the Year for his groundbreaking series of self-funded billboards that were displayed across California. This series of 24 images, titled The End of the Dream, sheds light on three incredibly important issues plaguing the state—drought, fire, and housing. By placing his striking visuals in a space typically reserved by advertisers, Broening makes an important statement.

Amateur photographer Carlo Marrazza was singled out for his strong work and was named IPA 2023 Discovery of the Year. Marrazza’s imagery sheds light on the truly unique story of the Bakkarwals of Jammu and Kashmir, a resilient community of goat and sheep herders, who embark on their annual migratory journey from the hills of the Jammu region, traversing the majestic Himalayas to reach the lush valleys of Kashmir. This year’s journey was fraught with hardship, as heavy snowfall led to a loss of livestock. Marrazza’s ability to capture the spirit and resilience of the community, even in the face of adversity, is remarkable.

In fact, all of the category winners show a deep love for storytelling. This passion, combined with their technical abilities, are just part of what make IPA special.

“As I was viewing the submissions, I was acutely aware and thrilled by the love and passion that people all over the world have for the photograph as a medium for story-telling,” commented Quentin Nardi, photo editor of the Smithsonian Magazine and IPA jury member. “The work that used light and shadow, composition, technical skills, and complex color exploration to make a more sophisticated image—one that would hold my eye and call to me to linger longer—is the image that got my vote.”

These are the remarkable winners of the 2023 International Photography Awards.

“The End of the Dream” by Thomas Broening. Professional Winner, Advertising.

“Pets Meets Vintage” by Horst Kistner. Professional Winner, Special.

“Narrow Escape” by Tony Law. Professional Winner, Sports.

“Songkran” by Thamarong Wanarithikul. Non-Professional Winner, Event.

“Must resist” by Or Adar. Non-Professional Winner, Editorial / Press.

“Old Father Thames” by Julia Fullerton-Batten. Professional Winner, Fine Art.

“Ice Fantasy” by Barbara and Maciej Noskowski. Professional Winner, Nature.

Both amateur and professional photographers were singled out across 22 categories.

“power station (storm)” Steffen Reichardt. Non-Professional Winner, Architecture.

“Bakkarwals of Jammu and Kashmir 1” by Carlo Marrazza. Non-Professional Winner, People.

“Anemone Purity” by Claudia Gaupp. Non-Professional, Nature.

“Ukraine’s War” by Wolfgang Schwan. Professional Winner, Editorial / Press

“NYC Women’s March 2017” by Nabil West. Professional Winner, Event.

“Polychromo” by Bevil Templeton-Smith. Non-Professional Winner, Fine Art.

“Spaghetti Stylist” by Yuliy Vasilev. Non-Professional Winner, Advertising.

“Ships on Land” by Professional Gang Wang. Winner, Architecture.

“Our War” by Edgar Martins. Professional Winner, Analog / Film.

“Ukraine: A War Crime” by FotoEvidence. Professional Winner, Book.

“Freedom to Fly” by Allison Hunter. Professional Winner, People.

“Where does the tree end and the rest of the world begin?” by Daniela Balestrin. Non-Professional Winner, Analog / Film.

“.raw” by Daniil Kobizskiy. Non-Professional Winner, Special.

“The Promise [of safe, clean and unlimited energy]” by Jan Schölzel. Non-Professional Winner, Book.

IPA: Website | Instagram | Facebook

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by the IPA.

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“If you are curious, then you are alive,” Juergen Teller told W back in 2021. “Life is precious, and you’ve got to do the best you can with it. You can find everything boring, you can find everything negative, or you can jump in the cold water and take a risk.” Nowhere is this credo—which informs the prolific photographer’s nearly four-decade career—more evident than in his latest exhibition at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. Teller, a frequent W magazine contributor whose work has become the blueprint for a generation of young photographers and artists, has mounted his biggest show yet at the sprawling museum on the Champs des Mars. Titled “i need to live,” the solo exhibition features over 800 of Teller’s signature oeuvre—one that pioneered pared-down, hyperrealistic fashion editorials, and still frames his celebrity subjects as everyday folks, capturing them in ways the public has never seen before.

The fashion component is strong in “i need to live”—fitting, as the exhibition was sponsored in part by Saint Laurent, which created a special line of merch for the show including pillows, t-shirts, plates, and more, adorned with images shot by Teller over the years. Iconic photographs from Marc Jacobs’s spring 2008 campaign featuring Victoria Beckham’s legs in a shopping bag, an unforgettable portrait of Yves Saint Laurent, and candid shots of models from Teller’s “Go-See” series can be found at the French museum. For those who want to bring more of Teller’s work home, the London-based creative is releasing a series of four new books including the exhibition catalogue, as well as what Teller calls “my most romantic project” The Myth, made in collaboration with his wife and creative partner Dovile Droyzyte during their journey to start a family together. Below, a sneak peek at “i need to live,” which opens December 16 and runs through January 9, 2024.

Posted: Dec 12, 2023 1:06 PM CST

by
WAKA Action 8 News

Clarence Gibbons of Prattville, who witnessed history as a photographer for CBS News, has died at 87.

Action 8 News Anchor Darryl Hood interviewed Gibbons in 2015 as part of our television special on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Gibbons graciously shared his memories of shooting film and video of some of the most important events in U.S. history over his long career.

Those events included many civil rights moments and other milestones, some of them tragic. The images he shot are still being shown on TV today.

After Gibbons left CBS News, he returned home to our area and spent many years as a videographer at WSFA before retiring from television.

Gibbons died December 3. His memorial service was held this past weekend at First Baptist Church in Prattville.

All of us at Action 8 News send our sympathies to his family, his countless friends and those who still admire his work in capturing the news.

Watch the video above to see our 2015 interview with Clarence Gibbons.

I recently had the privilege of spending a few days in Scotland with my close friend Jakub Bors. During our time together, I complimented his exceptional use of colors. He revealed that his inspiration came from none other than Annie Leibovitz.

Jakub has even created a video tutorial on achieving stunning color-grading effects using Luminar Neo. In his tutorial, he explores three methods: Overlays, the Color Harmony tool, and the Moody or LUT tool. The cherry on top is that he generously provides exercise files for hands-on learning.

Overlays

Jakub demonstrates the art of using Overlay creatively. He showcases how to apply various colors to separate layers as overlays and masterfully employs layer blend modes to achieve stunning color grading effects on an image. This technique adds depth and vibrancy to photographs and offers a sophisticated way to convey mood and style.

Color harmony tool

Luminar Neo’s Color Harmony tool simplifies color adjustment, offering control over hue, saturation, luminance, and more. Jakub shows how he uses the Color Harmony tool to split tone colors.

Mood or LUT tool

The Mood tool utilizes professional lookup tables (LUTs) for swift photo appearance alterations. Jakub demonstrates the application of the provided LUT from the exercise files to perform effective color grading on the image.

Key takeaways

Watching Jakub’s video on color grading is a must for anyone seeking to improve their photo editing skills. He takes you through three comprehensive methods for achieving stunning color grading effects using Luminar Neo: Overlays, the Color Harmony tool, and the Moody or LUT tool. But what sets Jakub’s tutorial apart is his generosity in supplying exercise files.

This hands-on learning opportunity ensures you can follow along, practice, and truly grasp the techniques he shares. So, whether you’re an aspiring photographer or a seasoned pro, this video promises to be a valuable resource for enhancing your creative editing abilities and producing visually striking images that stand out from the crowd.

Anyone with the slightest interest in the American West or Native American culture is familiar with the work of Edward S. Curtis. His work adorns the walls and bookshelves of many a home in Sisters – and across the globe.

Yet few are familiar with the arduous 30-year quest Curtis embarked upon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to document the people and cultures of North America’s native population. The result was a 22-volume portfolio and book titled “The North American Indian,” with over 2,200 photogravures (copper plate prints) and 2.5 million words of ethnographic texts on 80 Western tribes.

Curtis’ journey and the resulting treasure trove of work is the subject of the latest publication by Dr. Larry Len Peterson of Sisters. Peterson, an award-winning physician and scientist of dermatology, has won renown for his extraordinary coffeetable books on Western artists Charles M. Russell and Phillip R. Goodwin, and for his highly regarded “American Trinity: Jefferson, Custer, and the Spirit of the West.”

“Edward S. Curtis: Printing the Legends” is now available for preorder, and it marks another high point in Peterson’s documentation of the important figures in Western art.

“I’ve known about Curtis for probably 40 years,” Peterson told The Nugget.

Among the many artists whose work the scholar and collector has explored – including legends like Russell – Peterson considers Curtis “the most consequential.” The scope of his work is breathtaking – and exceptional.

In his introduction to “Printing the Legends,” Peterson notes that most photographers in Curtis’ era focused on the peoples of the American Southwest and the northern plains, ignoring other peoples entirely. Curtis went to extraordinary lengths to photograph a wide range of peoples.

“Curtis was the only artist who recorded a wide swath of the Indigenous people living in the American and Canadian West,” Peterson writes. “That alone is a monumental achievement.”

Peterson calls Curtis’ near-obsessive effort “the biggest photojournalistic undertaking of all time. If you look at his images, there’s nothing like it.”

The image that Peterson chose for the cover of the book holds particular meaning for him.

“I have a few Curtis original photographs and that’s the first one I bought,” he said. “I consider it his best.”

In recent years, as every aspect of America’s westward expansion is being reassessed, Curtis’ reputation has come under scrutiny. Curtis is regarded as having romanticized his subjects and failed to grapple with the conditions that Native Americans were actually living under at the time he created his art. This, for some, calls into question the “truthfulness” of his images.

Ellie Gascoigne of the Photography Ethics Center writes that, “instead of depicting Native American tribes as they actually were in 1898, Curtis ultimately froze them in a past that no longer existed.”

Peterson addresses those criticisms, and puts them into context.

Curtis was enamored of the school of art and photography known as Pictorialism – which was, indeed, self-consciously romantic, and depicted beautiful people in beautiful settings, making a photograph appear like a painting. The sepia tone of Curtis’ photogravures is a key element of his manifestation of this style.

Peterson notes that criticism of Curtis for the way his subjects are “dressed up” misses a key point:

“Ninety percent of the people, he just asked them to come (to be photographed) in their Sunday

finest,” he said. “Even in my childhood, if you went to get a photo taken, you wore nice clothes. It was a more formal time back then.”

Curtis’ photographs are, without question, artful – which is why they remain so impactful to this day.

“Curtis proved that the biggest component of a camera is the guy taking the picture,” Peterson said.

While romanticism is certainly a component of his work, Peterson believes Curtis captured something ineffable that contributes to the durability of his vision.

“He was able to identify a dignity in the Native American that others weren’t even looking for,” he said.

Peterson believes that the viewer can see the Indians’ pride in their ancestry come through the photographs – and there is a spark of hope in what was a dark time for them.

Creating a book that does justice to Curtis’ photography is a challenge in and of itself. Peterson has learned a great deal over a couple of decades of compiling and producing art books.

“My ability to put these books together has improved exponentially,” he told The Nugget.

The critical element is attention to detail.

“First off, it’s wanting to present somebody’s art in the best way I can so that people can feel the emotional connection to the art,” Peterson said. “Color reproduction and image size are critical in art books.”

Sisters photographer Dennis Schmidling photographed original photogravures for reproduction. There were multiple rounds of communication between the printer and a graphic designer to get the color correction nailed down so that everything would reproduce correctly.

The book is printed on wood-free paper made of silk and coated in marble from Garda, Italy. This very high-end paper facilitates the best possible reproduction. The end product is a magnificent six-pound tome of heirloom quality.

In his introduction, Peterson extolls the power of Curtis’ art:

“His pictures inspire awe not just because they are outstanding, but because they transport us to a moment of truth when we also see that they consist, in Darwin’s words, of ‘form most beautiful.’ But to be great, they also have to strike us with the truth that we are all connected in our common humanity.”

“Edward S. Curtis: Printing the Legends” is available for preorder in hardcover at online sellers from Farcountry Press at 800-821-3874, http://www.farcountrypress.com, and can be preordered through local bookstores.

Peterson expects delivery in January.