I wasn’t going to play with HDR. I really wasn’t. For those of you not in the know, HDR stands for high-dynamic-range and it is all about the lighting, shadows and highlights and in some cases, really playing with color. I really wasn’t. On one hand I could see where it could be very beneficial in tough lighting conditions. On the other hand I can see where it has been really abused. Some results I have seen are like kicking a puppy. It’s just not right.

I also knew that HDR was something that I would be able to spend hours that I don’t have to spare playing with. Well I got talked into downloading the program so here we go.

In most cases you start with at least three images. One exposed correctly and one over and one under exposed. You feed them into the program, turn some knobs and flip some switches and your HDR image pops out. You can also work with one image. Kind of a different process there.  Below are a couple first run tests. The tractor was one exposure. The flower garden was three exposures. Be assured this will not become my standard method of processing but one must try and keep up with the times. Clicking on images makes them grow ;-)

HDR Tractor

HDR Garden