HDR - Take 1

Today I finished processing my first set of High Dynamic Range images. HDR is where you take 3 shots of an object using automatic exposure bracketing, in this case at [-2, 0, +2]. Each of the images will have details of areas (highlight, shadows) that the others do not have. You then combine the 3 images into an HDR image using software such as PhotoMatix Pro. The resulting combined image has such depth that it cannot be displayed and you have to use a technique called tone mapping to bring it back into the 16 bit space.

These are only my first attempt and they are greatly handicapped by the fact that I didn’t use a tripod, which means that there are movement artifacts between the images. The shots are from a weekend in Tallinn, Estonia where I visited my daughter who is an exchange student at the Estonia Academic for Music and Theater for the spring, from her London school. It was still winter weather so the sun was bright but low on the horizon giving shadows that were ideal for HDR processing.

The complete result can be found in the flickr set.