First Try at HDR

The giraffe seems to be the most interesting - and most creepy - shot you can take of an animal. I'm not sure what it is about the giraffe... he always gets me coming back for more shots!




What I wanted to try that seems to be very popular these days with everyone getting their hands on Photoshop is HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging. Photoshop CS3 and CS4 have automatic HDR tools, but I found them to not look very good. I'm sure it was me, but I really only spent a few minutes with the auto program, and the blending looked terrible.

First, here is the picture I wanted to try.



Because I shot in RAW, I was able to drop the exposure in my post processing to capture the details in the sky. I saved that off as a separate file. Then, I went back to the original and increased the exposure to bring out more details in the giraffe, thus blowing out the sky. These two shots are examples of what all of us get when presented with high contrast situations, like shooting the blue sky as a background. Your camera can only compensate for one or the other, unlike say the human eye, which can account for both. You'll get either a properly exposed sky (dark giraffe) or a properly exposed giraffe (with blown out sky).





So, then I took the two extreme exposed shots and went back into Photoshop. I blended them in using separate layers into one image, properly exposing for the sky and the giraffe. I'm sure there's really more to it than that, as there are books out there showing photographers how to do this properly. I've seen some amazing HDR images out there that look awesome. For now, I'll just have to keep practicing with my giraffe from our zoo. It's a neat technique so give it a try!