HDR books

can any one tell me about any good books on how to master hdr photography? i have been shopping around and there are a lot of them out there. if you have one and like it please let me know.
thank you,
KDM Imagery

I would recommend three books as must-haves :- Practical HDR by David Nightingale, HDR Photography Photo Workshop by Pete Carr, A World in HDR by Trey Ratcliff. Other books I would recommend as useful reading :- HDR Photography Secrets by Rick Sammon, High Dynamic Range by Ferrell McCollough, Mastering High Dynamic Range Photography by Michael Freeman. If you want it a bit more technical try The HDR Handbook by Christian Bloch. The one that I found most useful, and suggest you try first out of all the books, was the Practical HDR by David Nightingale, it gives you information about what settings he used in Photomatix to achieve his final picture.

Hope this is of help to you, Kevin.

I completely concur with Kevin’s book recommendations. I continue reference and reread most of the books he cites. Specifically, Ferrell McCollough’s “Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography” puts HDR into perspective, explains its details and also references several outstanding HDR photographers (including Trey Ratcliff. Trey’s website, www.stuckincustoms.com and his recent book, “A World in HDR” are excellent resources. One of the unique aspects of Trey’s book is his discussion of using light (via changing shutter speeds) as the third dimension in an HDR photogragh—which, in essence, adds the dimension of depth to a normal two dimensional photo. He also introduces the concept of double tone mapping. An understanding of these concepts will significantly improve your HDR photos and your ability to “see the light”. This last part (about “seeing the light”) is a concept that is also discussed in Rick Sammons excellent book, “HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers”. Also, Michael Freeman’s book, “Mastering HDR Photography”, provides an excellent review of tone mapping theory, tone mapping operators, and the concepts of how we perceive and visualize a photo and why HDR appeals to the way our brain interprets a scene. Upon first reading, this book may be a bit difficult to understand; however, upon the third reading, it all negins to fall into place and your depth of understanding of HDR will be greatly expanded. Finally, David Nightingale’s book “Practical HDR” provides a complete overview of the HDR process and how to optimize your HDR photos. It also includes many photos from HDR photographers including Ben Wilmore (www.bestofben.com). I highly recommend all of these five books.