Stu-Art’s Photo Gallery and Blog

I recently discovered HDR photography and love the way additional detail can be extracted from normal boring photos. The trick however is not to over do the settings otherwise you end up with a cartoon looking photo, which can be fine if this is the intended result.

Click here to see some of my HDR photos

Here is my current workflow, which is evolving as I understand more about the subject.

1. Take either 3 photos using the AV function at f11 (to keep everything in focus) with EV setting of –2, 0 +2 or take one photo in RAW format. If you take the photo in RAW you can create 3 exposures either with the canon DPP, or with Photomatix itself.
2. Generate the HDR image and tone map with HDR software such as Photomatix Pro and save
3. Use Picasa to clean up (crop, lighten, convert to B/W etc)  and save again
4. Open with Neat Image and remove the Noise
5. Add a frame or two using Framefun
6. Add a signature with Picasa

Useful links to HDR Photography

• http://www.stuckincustoms.com/
• http://www.hdrsoft.com/
• http://mikedelgaudio.com/wordpress/2006/12/11/5-ways-to-create-black-and-white-images-in-picasa/