HDR Tutorial

Learn about HDR technique

HDR Tutorial
Beginner tutorial

HDR with your compact camera - BEGINNER

Get started taking photos

In this user guide you'll learn how to take your own HDR photo in a very simple way!

This is what you need:

A camera that permits you to adjust exposure settings
A Tone Mapping Software like Photomatix, Photoshop, or what ever you can find in the web.

To create HDR photo you need 3 or more differently exposed photos of the same shot. All cameras are different so first verify how to change the exposure settings on your camera. The most important thing is to make sure the camera does not move between shots! You can use a tripod or place the camera on a stable surface so as to minimize movement as much as possible between shots. Here you can find an example of how it works on my Kodak EasyShare.

First picture at EV 0

Second picture at EV -2. We have simply pressed left 4 times!

Third picture at EV +2. We have simply pressed right 4 times!

HDR photo generating and tonemapping

The easiest software to generate HDR software is Photomatix (free trial or 99$ per license) but it's possible to use other softwares, such as Photoshop CS2/CS3. For this user guide we have used Photomatix Pro for Mac but you can find the Microsoft Windows version.

Open the software and select "Generate HDR image".

We choose the 3 photos taken before and we click Open.

Select "Align source images" and also "Attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts". Choose between "Background movement" if there is moving water in the picture or just leave "Moving objects/people".

Just a few seconds and something like this will appear.

Don't worry if it looks imperfect cause we need to tone map the picture. Just click on "Tone Mapping" and you'll see a preview of your photo.

In the window "Tone Mapping Settings", the options "Strength" and "Color Saturation" will have the greatest impact on your photo. Regulate them and also the option "Light Smoothing" so as to get your desired result.

Once you have finished with all the effects just click "Process". At the and of it the resulting HDR will appear. Here it is, just save your work and enjoy it!