First crack at HDR

CC welcome

Not bad for a first try. The foreground is still a little blown and I think the scene was lit flately to begin with. Next time try a scene with a higher tonal range - darker shadows and brighter highlights.
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John

Thanks for the comment, i will definitely keep that in mind

You need to try again. HDR (High Dynamic Range) means that every tone from pure black to pure white is captured in at least three or more exposures. The resulting file should not have any blown out highlights or shadow that go completely black.

Looking at your picture, the whites in the sky and the rocks in the foreground have now detail and are blown out. also the contrast range so to tight, losing detail in the shadow areas. Reprocess and try to hold the highlights and shadows.

I like the composition, but the train car seems a little soft.

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Dave

What software did you use and what exposures did you take your photos at? + - 1? + - 2?

sorry i guess im pretty new at this. I used bracketing on the D90 and set it to +1 and 0 and -1. I then used photoshop cs4 and merged it to HDR. Then used gamma and exposure as well as local adaptation to adjust the picture. I just assumed that since i used merge to hdr it would be an HDR image but i see your points.

Good first attempt, try setting the bracketing to + - 2ev which will increase your overall dynamic range 2ev over this picture. That way you shouldn't clip as much if any highlights or shadows. Or you can always manually bracket your image -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, to get 5 images and a little more information as well. Let us know how it goes.

Mike

Thank you so much for the tip, i will definitely try that out next time.

A couple other tips that helped me with HDR shots were to remember to turn off VR if you are using a tripod (recommended), and to use a remote shutter release or wireless one to avoid shaking the camera between shots by having to hit the shutter. Both of those will help you get a sharper final image after the 3 or 5 shots have been combined.