So, have you managed to hide enough money from your spouse yet? Great! Here’s what you need. Recommended Camera Features: BRACKETING & AEB (AUTO EXPOSURE BRACKETING)
Since the main focus of the game is going to be HDR, make sure that your camera has a bracketing feature. Some standard DSLR Cameras can bracket up to three (3) exposures while professional grade DSLRs can bracket up to nine (9). Three bracketed exposures can usually produce a stunning HDR photograph, so it’s not always necessary to spend big bucks on the upgraded bracketing feature.
RAW IMAGE FILE FORMAT
Raw digital photography has a wider dynamic range or color gamut than the eventual final image format, such as a JPEG. Raw images also preserve most of the information of the captured photo and save, with minimum loss of information, the data obtained from the camera’s sensor. In other words: Raw = Higher Dynamic Range. Period. Thankfully nearly all DSLR Cameras have this feature.
BEST DSLR CAMERA: Nikon D800 The Sony NEX-7 is certainly quite good in most conditions especially when you want to take images at the drop of a hat. But this Nikon D800 is a bigger, traditional DSLR camera. It shoots a massive 36 megapixels and has all the professional-level features associated with high-end DSLRs. For me, I prefer this over the Nikon D4 which is almost twice as expensive.
LOW NOISE AND ISO RANGE
When shooting for HDR it’s important to shoot at the lowest ISO possible. The higher the ISO, the more noise or grain will be in the image. Since HDR Processing always produces extra grain, brackets shot at high ISO ranges can look very poor after HDR processing. Some Cameras have improved ISO ranges that allow you to shoot at higher ISOs without losing quality to film grain. Pay close attention to these details when researching what camera is right for you.
HDR Photography Software
What Camera?
Basic Recommendations for Creating HDR Images:
The following are listed in order from Beginner to Professional (conveniently enough, also from lowest to highest price.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP:
GOOD CAMERA: Panasonic Lumix GX1 If budget is not a concern, we suggest you jump down to the “Better” or “Best” recommendations. However, if budget is your principle concern, then no worries! This Panasonic will serve you well! It has a 16 megapixel sensor and is based on something called the “Micro Four Thirds” standard. This means that there many different lenses you can attach to this camera, which is something you can add over time. If you’re just getting started, there is no need to worry about lenses, since it comes with a servicable 14-42mm lens that will allow wide-angle shots and a little bit of zoom. It also has a slick 3″ touch enabled LCD screen.
PHOTOMATIX PRO:
Your One Stop Photoshop; arguably the most important tool in photography, design, and image manipulation & processing. Photoshop also has a built in HDR feature that achieves some pretty decent results. If you want to produce stunning imagery or you just want to put your friend’s head on a chicken’s body, this piece of software is an absolute must.
This is the software I use to process my HDR images. It’s fast; and it’s reliable & cheap. It’s an all around HDR Photography Processing powerhouse that, in my opinion, produces a better result than Adobe Photoshop’s HDR engine.
ADOBE LIGHTROOM:
If you are going to be shooting HDR Photography, you are going to have a ton of pictures to sort through. Adobe Lightroom catalogues your image library for streamlined sorting, manipulation, and finishing. It’s also a direct portal between Photoshop (all Adobe products) and Photomatix Pro. In addition you can quickly create web galleries and upload images directly to facebook, flickr, and smugmug. So now that you have a camera, lens, and a tripod, your ready to start shooting for HDR Processing. Before we head out and fire off a bunch of photos though, let’s examine some of what goes into the shooting aspect of HDR Photography.
BETTER CAMERA: Sony NEX-7 It is compact and powerful. It can be used it almost any photographic situation and is one of the best models available in this class. Many amateur photographers use it to take photos of everything, from kids to landscapes to architecture to objects. This tiny 24 megapixel beast has a thousand other features that those clever Japanese crammed inside.
Should I shoot everything with bracketed exposures for HDR?
No, and not just because you shouldn’t… it’s actually impossible. There are a lot of times when you can’t fire off multiple exposures. Since this is probably the easiest problem area to identify, let’s break it down. Moving subjects and Portraits: If the scene is mostly moving objects or you have to move the camera to follow the subject, don’t bother trying to capture multiple exposures; it’s a post processing nightmare. If there
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