High Dynamic Range (HDR) works to add more dynamic range to a photograph, altering the ratio of light to dark in a photo. It takes multiple shots of the same image at different exposures and works to create the perfect ratio to make a final photo appear like what the eye sees, giving it more depth and detail. HDR is very useful when shooting landscapes, portraits in sunlight, and low-light or backlit scenes because it can create a better balance between the dark and light parts of the scene or subject. Though HDR can help improve photos, it is best not to use it in photos with motion, high contrast, or vivid colors because they can become washed out or blurred. (lifehacker.com)
To create these images, I used a tripod to take 5 photos of each landscape with different exposures. To create the final HDR images, I opened Photoshop and did File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro, and selected the 5 images to compile them into one HDR image. For the one of the bench, I used the 5 photos in the rows above, combining them and cropping the final image so that it included only the left side of the original photos. I then altered the contrast, saturation, and color balance to create the final image. For the image of the skyline, I did the same process with a different set of images, cropping them at the end and changing the contrast, saturation, and color balance again to produce this image. For the final image, I followed the same process again, but because the branches were blown in the wind, they got blurred and the HDR merging was not as successful. For the best HDR of trees, I think I should have picked a less windy day so that there would be no movement. I think the best of these three final images is the skyline photo because there is no grainy texture or movement. The overall image is more still and the viewer can focus solely on the view without being distracted by blurry components. I did like the subject of the bench, but I did not shoot it correctly, as there was wind to affect the image and I took too broad of original images, when it would be better to focus only on the bench.
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