Experiments with HDR

For a while I've been wanting to have a try at a High Dynamic Range photo.

This technique is used where if you set the exposure right for one part of the photo it's too dark or light in another part of the photo, and there is no adjustment that makes it acceptable.  I've seen it used where there is a large range between the brightest and darkest parts of a scene, such as strong sunlight and deep shadow.  If you adjust for the bright light, then then everything in shadow is just black, but if you adjust it so you can see what's in shadow, then the sunlit parts of the image are overexposed and maybe pure white.

HDR involves merging a series of images at different exposures and using the best parts from each.

Here I took 3 images at different exposure settings and then combined them into a fourth.  I put something white in the foreground to reflect the light back.

I tried another one with more of the image in shadow.

I was going to do some more, but the cloud came over and the bright sun disappeared.  Maybe I'll try it again when there's something more exciting to photograph.