It has been a little while since I worked on some HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. I was finally able to make it to a Photowalk Utah event. And so I grabbed my tripod, cable release, and Nikon D300 and took some photographs that I later turned into full HDR photographs.
Salt Lake Apartment Complex in HDR
The key to taking good HDR photographs? Tripod. This is the first step in creating the images. You want a series of photographs where your camera is solid as a rock – unmoving. And then you hope you can get a series of images where people aren’t moving or cars stay still.
Salt Lake Hallway in HDR
The sun had set so I was taking some long exposures. Some of the exposures were about 30 seconds. For each of these images I took 7 shots. I could take 9 but I wanted to experiment and take only 7. I say ONLY, lol.
Glass and reflections really take on a surreal look in HDR. I think there is an added dimension to the photographs – such as the reflections and the shine on the windows of the train station in SLC.
Intermodal Hub Salt Lake City in HDR
You also want to find extreme light conditions. If you photograph at noon – there isn’t a lot of variation to the light – everything is bright. But if you can find bright lights and dark shadows you get a lot more out of an HDR photograph.
Lights and leaves of the city in HDR
The last two photographs ARE NOT HDR photographs. The first one was a photograph of 4 cameras sitting on the dinner table at Jason’s deli. Can you find all four cameras? The Canon 7D, Canon G11, Pentax something, and the iPhone. Yes the iPhone counts as a camera – because if it is the only camera with you then it is the best camera you have.
Can you find all 4 cameras in this photograph?
And I whipped out the Nikkor f/2.8 105mm VR micro lens to take some macro shots. This was a rather cool photo of another lens. I know, I am a geek.
Macro photograph of a Nikon lens