HDR (High Dynamic Range)

When you point your camera at something, the camera can't always pick up the entire range of light and shadow. Or more precisely it wont pick up the detail within the light and shadow, like your eye can see. The parts that it doesn't get are either too dark (ie black) or blownout (too bright). To overcome this we can use HDR.

By taking a range of photos of different bracketed exposures you can get the detail from the shodows and from the highlights. Generally a range 1 to 2 EV steps either side of 0 will be enough. ie -2ev, -1ev, 0ev, +1ev, +2ev. This is where the Nikon D40x is letting me down. On some cameras you can set it to take a range of shots within an exposure range automatically. This is called auto bracketing. It will happen a lot quicker than taking a photo, then changing the exposure up or down a step then taking a photo...repeat. Lots can happen in that time. Clouds can move a long way, trees sway, animals &/or people will move... you get the idea.

Come on Nikon, update the D40x with auto bracketing!!!

Anyway...

Now the trick to blending these photos is up to the individual. Photoshop CS3 has an automated process found under File - Automate - Merge to HDR. I'm not sure whether earlier versions of Photoshop have this or not. I find that CS3 is too subtle for my liking so I use a program I mentioned earlier called Photomatix. There are tutorials on the net for this everywhere. I love it. One of the great things about Photomatix is being able to make a HDR style picture (though not true HDR) from a single RAW file. This is handy but the process introduces lots of noise. Sometimes it looks good, other times not. You could get rid of the noise through Photoshop &/or noise ninja (Photoshop plugin), but I'm too lazy yet. But there are literally dozens of ways to make HDR. CS3's HDR processing is alright, but Photomatix just makes the shots POP. Some people do find the Photomatix effect too much... not me. Personal taste I guess. There's an awesome tutorial on www.stuckincustoms.com. Search around there for some great HDR photos and a fantastic tutorial for Photomatix.

If you can't justify $100ish on Photomatix, fair enough. Presuming you have a version of Photoshop you can merge your photos into layers from within the document. Doing this could be a timely but satisfying experience, watching your HDR photo appear before your eyes as you erase bits of one layer to reveal the layer underneath, showing details within heavy shadows and repairing blownout sections.