HDR photography

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging allows you to combine several different exposures into one photo. You've probably encountered this on your mobile phone's camera. But what is it? When we photograph we try to expose those things to wish we want to draw the viewer's attention. However, exposing for some points in the photo may overexpose or underexpose other points in the photo. HDR lets us have our cake and eat it, too--to a point. Like any other feature, HDR can be overdone.

How to do it? If you have a mobile phone camera with an HDR setting, just click and go. But be careful to hold still while the camera records those images. Other cameras, like my Sony a6300 can accommodate HDR camera apps. Otherwise, you have to take several photos of differing exposures (for example one slightly over exposed, another slightly under exposed, and one of normal exposure). This is something we call bracketing. Some Canons have settings to automatically bracket. Otherwise, you can take three separate images. Of course, you'll need a tripod.

After you've taken your images you'll need to use software to combine the different exposures into one image. For example, you can use Adobe Lightroom:

Personally, I use a dedicated HDR application called Aurora HDR. It also acts as a plug-in to Adobe Lightroom.