Looking at the Memphis Skyline with HDR Photography; High Dynamic Range

You may or not have heard the term HDR photography. HDR stands for high-dynamic-range. It is actually the range of shade variants that the eye picks up when looking at a high contrasting scene. For example one may be standing in the shade looking out at a sunlit place and the range is drastic. The human eye is remarkable and picks up a wide range... cameras with sensors not so much. In order to show the full range that is there one must combine more than one image shot at the same place but lighter or darker. I am an amateur photographer so I usually only use three images and I don't shoot brackets. I simply take the shot from my camera and darken it and lighten it and use the one the camera makes when it is shooting at +/-0.0 ev. The three shots are combined to make an HDR photo.

This shot is straight from my camera

This one is just slightly edited with Corel PaintShop Pro 7

This one is done with HDR in the program Photomatix Essentials which you can get for about $39.00 U.S.

This one is extreme HDR called Grunge also done with Photomatix Essentials

If you notice, the photo's become more and more painterly depending on how much HDR is applied. I personally don't like the grunge on the bottom. I think they are overdone and a lot of the Photographers I hang out with think so also. However, it can greatly add creativity to your photography. Notice that the dynamic range in the clouds is heightened with each change in photo editing. It is important to realize that all of these started from the same photo at the top of this blog article.