Sunday, December 27, 2009

HDR photography

After reading Trey Ratcliff's blog I was very keen to do some HDR photos. For those that don't know HDR stands for high dynamic range, meaning that (ideally) every element of the photo is exposed correctly. For an ordinary photograph the camera meters the scene and recommends the best settings for the exposure (automatic and priority modes). The problem is that for almost every photo there will be significant portions of the photo that are either in shadow or blown out. HDR minimizes this effect by taking many photos of the same scene and only including the parts of each photo that was exposed correctly.

Anyway, I had a go at making some HDR photos of my own today. I waited until it was near sunset to go out, simply for the reason it was too hot to go out any earlier. I headed out to Maraetai to take some shots. My two best shots turned out to be ones that I took both going to and returning from the beach. The first is in Whitford looking over country fields towards Rangitoto.

The second was when I was returning from the beach. I saw a hint of colour over the hills then caught a glimpse of amazing rays of light pouring out. I was desperate to find a place where I could see it clearly, and park safely, as it was a very windy country road. After 2 agonizing minutes driving, forever fearful the sun would sink too low, I found a great spot by the side of the road and was able to whip out the exposures before it was all over.

Tags: HDR