HDR Photography That Sells

I use HDR photography almost exclusively for my architectural photography. The dynamic range of almost any scene is too great for the camera's sensor to capture well both interiors and exteriors. I choose to use HDR processing to overcome this problem. The software available today is so good and so simple to use that I can create natural looking images that my clients are very happy with.

The darkest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 1/15 sec. The flame is all that is visible in that shot.

The brightest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 20 sec. The floor and the sky were properly exposed and everything else was blown out.

I use Photomatix Pro 5.0 for the HDR processing.

The client wanted a shot to show off the lighting and the ornate carpentry work in the soffit.

The darkest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 1/3 sec. The flames and the lightest part of the sky are all that is visible in that shot.

The brightest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 20 sec. It took that long of an exposure to show detail inside of the cabana.

The darkest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 1/125 sec. The lights and the outside are all that is visible

The brightest exposure is ISO 100, f/11, 1.6 sec. That shows the detail in the stone and the crown moulding.

I used Photomatix Pro 5.0 for the HDR processing.

With this technique I never have to worry about unwanted flash reflections.

Make certain that you have enough exposures so that all parts of the scene are properly exposed.

Set your camera to Aperture Priority so the aperture stays the same and only the shutter speed varies to create the bracketed exposures.

Use a sturdy tripod.

Use a cable release so you don’t need to touch the camera between exposures.

The button that I circled in red selects which presets I want to choose from.

For this image I liked the Default Preset the best. I always try several of the presets as different images look best with different presets.

The Micro-Smoothing slider and the Smooth Highlights slider are used to adjust the amount of contrast in the image. I always adjust those sliders to achieve the look I want.

If you have a problem of haloing in your image, moving the Micro Smoothing slider to the right removes that effect.

Editors’ note:

When Larry says “a 9-stop HDR” he means 9 shots at 1.0 EV interval.
He commented: You need to cover the dynamic range necessary to capture all of the detail in the scene.
When asked why not smaller intervals he answered: I haven't seen any advantage in using exposure increments of less than one stop. I got used to using one stop increments as that was the maximum I could use when auto-bracketing with either the Nikon D3 or the Nikon D3x.
Another tip: Turn on every light that is visible in the scene.

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