HDR for Environments Beyond 5 stops of Light

The technical balance of all three basic camera settings (aperature, shutter speed, and ISO) are required for a properly exposed image.  A human eye can see 10-12 stops of light while a camera can only see 5 stops.  This is the reason most images we take with our camera, later do not appear as we saw them with our eyes.  With the camera limitation of 5 stops of light in an environment that displays twice that level, your image will either have the highlights blown out or no detail in the shadows.  You have to think about how you intend to deal with the range of light you are trying to photograph.  If you properly expose the shadows, the high lights may be blown out and result in a major distraction in your picture and destroy the quality of your image.

It is always best to catch the light in early mornings just before sunrise and just after sunset because the number of stops of light is closer to the range of the camera's capability, the images have higher quality due to the contrast as well as the quality of the light is so much more flattering at those times of the day.  You can attempt to compensate when capturing an image at more harsh lighting conditions, using a Split Density (SGND) filter or you can use HDR techniques in photoshop, which is the topic I will discuss in this blog.

In order to use HDR in photoshop, you must capture the exact image multiple times to give photoshop the ability to merge the best lighting qualities from each individual image.  Here is how to capture your images.  1)  setup your camera on a tripod with highlight warning active, locked on the image you wish to capture;  2)  set your focus to manual and not autofocus; 3)  do not adjust your zoom lens between shots, if used, as focus and focal length must remain the same for each image captured; 4)  take your first exposure to obtain your shadow detail (take as you normally would using your camera's exposure or light meter recommendations.  The blinking areas from your Highlight Warning system, are the blown out highlights; 5) to capture an image with the highlight detail, adjust in 1-2 stops of "minus compensation" such that the blinkies have gone away and take another image; 6) if the blinkies still exist with the last compensation adjustment, keep taking additional exposures with additional "minus compensation" until the blinkies have completely gone away.  Use only exposure compensation to underexpose your image and DO NOT change your aperature as decreased exposure by that means, will shift your focus point or depth of field.  You can choose to use all of the images you took with your camera in photoshop or just the first and last images.  The more images, the more time it will take for photoshop to merge the images into one perfect image, but not necessarily provide you with a better image.  I always try first just using the first and last to see if I like what photoshop has done.

Once in photoshop we will combine the images to retain both the highlights and the shadow detail into one image.  In our workshops we will go through step by step how to capture and then process your images in photoshop using its HDR capability, but for you that want to try it out now here are some of my starting points to try out.  Keep in mind these don't necessarily work for all image types.   Here are my typical starting points.  Adjust color vibrance to about 60% and Saturation to about 50%.  Open the curves tab and create a reverse S curve to darken down the sky and lighten up the shadows.  If you zoom in on the image and see any distortion back down the detail slider. If you have an unwanted glow around any focal points within the images you might want to decrease the strength.  Then click OK and photoshop will merge the images.

Then you need to go to HDR Toning as a secondary step for enhancing your HDR images.   You can crank up detail, radius, strength and shadow sliders to your personal taste.  Then use the preview button to see what changes you have made by comparing the original to the new and make additional adjustments as required.

It is amazing the difference you can make in your images that otherwise would be difficult to capture with the lighting conditions you may have been forced to accept.

Keep chasing the light even though it is often illusive.