HDR=High Dynamic Range photography
to do hdr-
if you put camera into full auto matrix metering, take first shot note fstop and shutter speed. put camera into full manual, see if camera still has the matrix fstop and shutter speed. if yes, then using shutter speed go up 2-4 shutter speeds 1 fstop worth of shutter speed at a time. then back to matrix shutter speed and go down same number of shutter speeds.
christian bloch in his hdri handbook did a test of 1 fstop bracketing vs 2fstop bracketing. there was an obvious image quality falloff using the 2fstop bracketing. if the image quality decline in 2stop bracketing is acceptable to you then use the 2 stop. 1 stop is recommended for max image quality, though of course it needed more shots. personally, if you can see the difference in 1 stop brackets then you might well have to use that. But if you cannot then 2stop brackets work fine.
this is on a tripod with cable release.
no, you should not use 1 raw shot and convert 1 stop up and down, because their is not enough dynamic range in the 1 raw shot. dynamic range is why we are doing this, hdr is trying to get all it can. If you use a single raw shot and triple convert it, you still end up with no more DR than the single raw shot.
the group of shots can be raw or jpeg. if jpeg they can be used as is. if raw remember that you HAVE to batch process all 3-9(?) shots. this is because the pp has to be all the same on every pic. you cannot, for example make any attempt to get the shadow details of the group of raw pics, because that would require different amounts of pp, and you cannot do that with hdr. the pp for all shots has to be identical.
for me i just shoot them in jpeg and use them from the camera, that way they are all identical because the camera jpeg settings are the same for every shot. i also put my hand stretched in front of the lens and take a check shot and when done take a ending shot with hand. this tells me where the hdr group is on my memory card when i transfer to the pc.
the only important item is to bracket using shutter speeds only. if fstops are used it changes dof between shots. and shoot enough shots, 3-9(?) is the optimum. the only other thought is to shoot a scene that deserves the the hdr technique, too many people are shooting hdr because it is new or different or whatever. many people are using hdr software on scenes that do not have enough dynamic range; they end up with images that have been enhanced by hdr software, they are not hdr images. the dynamic range was not in the scene to begin with. the scene for hdr should have a very wide dynamic range. this can be checked with a spotmeter on different areas. NOTE: use of auto bracketing on a camera may not work unless you know the bracketing is using the shutter speeds to bracket. in any event, you really need 3-9(?) shots for hdr; this is more than the auto bracket fcn on almost all cameras. and the bracketing has to be both sides of the middle shot. make you use enough brackets to cover the previously checked dynamic range. it does little good to bracket for a 10stop dynamic range when the scene has 14stops.
and the scene should have no movement, if so the item will blur in the hdr image.
do not adjust the focus. set the focus on infinity or use a hyperfocal setup for focus.
do not adjust the white balance for individual shots. go with awb or 1 setting and do not change it.
remember, hdr was created and meant for scene that have a dynamic range that exceeds the dynamic range of the camera sensor, about 5-6stops for jpeg or 7-9 for raw. hdr with the required software allows the user to capture a scene that has very high dynamic range.
I currently use Dynamic-Photo HDR and recommend it. Less than ½ the price of photomatrix and it has 6 different looks, (the photomatrix look is included), and each of the 6 looks can be fine tuned. Get Dynamic-Photo hdr here-
http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html ; also included is a program that is part of DP hdr that can make a fake hdr look image from a jpeg.
pp. after the hdri is made and is in a folder, i open in pe6. there i use noise ninja(to reduce noise), auto levels(to give a normal overall brightness amount), and focus magic(to sharpen and give a better focus. also if focus magic is used do not sharpen at all, that is double sharpening and is guaranteed to make artifacts.). save as tiff. DO NOT USE AUTO CONTRAST OR ANY OTHER CONTRAST ADJUSTMENT. that is what you just did in the hdr software. also do not adjust any shadows or bright areas. the point of hdr is to let the shooting of multiple shots and the hdr software combining of those shots take care of the dark areas and bright areas. if any areas are dark or highlight blown, then the brackets were not extended out far enough from center.
