Getting into HDR

I thought I’d experiment a little with some HDR images. I have again been inspired by browsing 500px.com, as there are many HDR images on this site that seem to become popular. I looked into some HDR apps and downloaded a trial for Photomatix Pro, then loaded one of my favourite images into it, and here is the result of a little experimentation with the presets available within it.

If you’re not familiar with HDR, it stands for High Dynamic Range, and is a composite image made by combining multiple exposures of the same shot, ideally captured in-camera. Most HDR programs available allow you to load a single image, and use a ‘tonemapping’ option, so that you don’t need multiple exposures. The end result is, traditionally, a perfectly exposed image, as it takes the best exposed areas of each and merges them together, however it creates some pretty surreal effects, that have made it quite a popular tool; just go to Google Image earch and type ‘hdr’ to see what you get.

So I uploaded this image to my profile on the 500px website, and in the time it’s taken me to compose this post, the image has received as many views as the original unedited version that I uploaded to the same site two years ago.