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5 tips to take beautiful HDR photos

admin August 4,2017

How to get high-quality HDR photos? Here are 5 tips that you can use to get HDR photos taken correctly so that you may have the right orientation to start.

Tip 1. Use a tripod

At first, I was hesitant to add the tripod to the list of tips because everyone knows it but it is an important item. Finally, it is here.

Tripod not only helps you remove image shake but also helps you fix the frame when you take multiple photos. Tripod will help each photo have a frame, the layout like the previous one.

Tip 2. Do not adjust the tone to a bright mode and call it HDR

This case is common, I understand when taking pictures with the RAW format we can pull details with a bright mode. You can create a photo with details in the shadow, a photo with details in the highlight with Lightroom. Then mix three photos together but it is not the same as taking individual photos and it is not a real HDR.

You ask why? A simple thing is when you take a picture with the available metering mode, the camera can only capture the data for a certain amount of light. And no matter what you do, it can not be changed but this data.

When you take each picture independently with different brightness modes, the three images will have different levels of data that you can exploit and these data cover a large amount of brightness of the scene, and this is really High Dynamic Range. The more pictures you take, the more data you have. These also have a saturation rule – there will be a time when the amount of data you add can not impro ve the picture quality anymore.

Tip 3. When you need HDR and when not

HDR means high dynamic range, and if you are shooting in a scene where brightness is fairly balanced between highlight and shadow, then we do not need HDR image. In such cases, the camera is still can obtain enough details from shadows to highlight.

So when do we use HDR mode?

Use it with sunset or sunrise, especially when you are taking the sun. Capture in the middle of the day, taking architectural or artifacts.

Tip 4. Invest in software

To cook a good dish, first you have to collect good ingredients and then your cooking process is very important. Likewise, when you have good photos, you need a good software to retouch these photos to achieve the best results. There are dozens of HDR imaging software, but I would like to introduce two of them. They are HDR Soft’s Photomatix Pro and Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro. These two programs have free versions, but I personally find the results are not as good as the version that we buy. One thing you should know is that these tone mapping programs are based on Algorithmic algorithms. So the stronger algorithmic algorithm is, the better results will be.

Tip 5. Control yourself

This is the reason why there are many HDR controversies, many people like shooting HDR photos in high and surrealist style. But some say HDR is ruining the photography world for its high-resolution photographs. Saturated colors are too high and the strange light of these pictures.

It’s easy to overdo when you tone mapping, but if you want to reproduce, control yourself before you save. Limit creating surreal photos (unless that’s the style you’re pursuing).

Conclusion

The above list is not super high but it is also a good orientation that you can start with this genre. After you have experienced this type of photography and want to go a step further, try combining HDR and Panorama.