During this week’s trip to Washington, DC, I decided to take some bracketed shots to process later to see what they would look like in HDR (high dynamic range).
The first – and most challenging thing to do was to convince the rest of my travel party to give me a few extra moments during our walk through our nation’s capital to take pictures, change some settings and take some more. If you have a choice, I suggest that you find the time to take pictures for HDR processing on your own.
Now that you have my first tip, the next and “real” first step is to setup your tripod. I like to attach my camera to the tripod and carry it around while looking through the viewfinder to frame the shot properly. Once you find your shot, set your tripod down and use the built-in bubble level to ensure your shot is setup as most people would expect to see it. Once the tripod is set, and your shot is properly framed, move on to “step 2.”
Next, you will want to go into your camera’s menu and look for AEB, or auto exposure bracketing. On my Canon Digital Rebel XSi, I set this to +/- 2 for this shot. I encourage you to experiment with this setting and take lots of practice shots using different settings. Check out the results when you set it at +/- 1, 1 1/2, 1 2/3, etc.
The third step I take is to attach my remote control AND turn off the image stabilization (IS) feature on my lens. The purpose of the remote control is to avoid causing any camera shake by simply pushing down on the shutter release. As for your IS setting, I suggest you read your user’s manual for the camera and/or lenses. My manual clearly states that one should NOT use IS when taking pictures on a tripod. The simple explanation is that the IS can make a mistake and compensate for movement when the shutter is released. Personally, I prefer the cable release over infrared – it’s just one less thing to fail in the field.
Now that your tripod, AEB, remote control, and IS setting has been taken care of, be patient! For this shot for example, I was waiting for the LEAST movement possible from the US flag. I also had to wait (along with the rest of my travel companions) for about 5-10 minutes for pedestrian traffic to clear this area, but in the end it was all worth it to me. Finally, the moment was here – I held down the remote control button and it took 3 automatically bracketed pictures for me within one second. I should take a moment to tell you that if you do not know, or like to use the AEB, you can also pause between shots and set your F-stops the old fashioned way too.
I hope this posting helped you get some kind of idea on what to do to take pictures for HDR processing. Now that you have your bracketed shots, I will let you decide on which method or program to use to process your shots.
One final note… Remember that the end result of your HDR creation is for YOUR enjoyment. If you are happy with the end result, that is all that matters. Some will say that it is too “fake” for their taste, or that it looks like a pencil drawing as opposed to a photograph – but that is quite alright. Your HDR creation is for YOU!
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