How to Make HDR Images

Picture this. You’re walking outside with your camera when you see this absolutely beautiful scene. You’re thinking about how nice this picture will look on your wall and how you just have to photograph it. There’s only one thing standing in your way: the scene has a lot of contrast, and there isn’t a fast way to get everything lighted properly. Do you light the sky properly or the ground/shadows? If you knew how to make HDR images, you wouldn’t have to choose.

hdr tutorial

photo by Eric Kilby

A high dynamic range image is an image that has a greater dynamic range of luminance and it allows you to portray a greater amount of contrast in one image. Unlike the human eye, a camera can’t capture that great a difference of contrast in one moment. To create a HDR you are going to merge three to five different images to create a single HDR.

What you will need:

  • A camera that enables you to change the settings manually, preferably a camera that can be set to capture bracketed photos automatically. It doesn’t have to be a reflex camera; any camera will do, but you have to be able to change the settings.
  • A tripod. This allows you to take a couple of different photographs without messing up your frame or shot.
  • Photo editing software.

Next you’re going to learn how to make HDR images. Here are the very basic steps to capture a 5 shot HDR image.

  1. Choose a subject you want to photograph and set up the tripod and focus in with your camera. The next thing you want to do is change your exposure settings. Underexpose by four stops.
  2. Once you have your first photograph you are going to want to do the same but this time you’re going to underexpose 2 stops.
  3. The third step is to take a regular photograph, meaning you’re not going to under -or overexpose.
  4. Step four is to do the same thing as steps one and two but this time you are going to overexpose two and four stops. This will give you a total of five images varying in brightness.
  5. Load all the images into your photo editing software and put all the different photographs together. This step depends on which photo editing tool you are using. There are plenty of tutorials out there that explain how to merge them together.
hdr landscape photography

photo by magnetismus

This topic can get significantly more complicated with various techniques, but this has been a very basic overview to get you started. Hope it helps!

About the Author:
Robin Lipton is a photography enthusiast who blogs about all things photography.

Like This Article?

Don't Miss The Next One!

Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current: