Most HDR Images are made from multiple exposures. That is to say you take a number of photos then use them to create one HDR image.
What you do, is basically take at least one underexposed image (so it is too dark) , one properly exposed image and at least one overexposed image (so it is too light) - This is called "bracketing" by photographers, by the way. The HDR processing then "blends" these photos together creates a single image that contains all the dynamic range of all the original photos.
That image often looks "flat" and lifeless on its own. The next step is to do some post processing to bring the image to life. This is done by looking at the areas in the photo separately, and then using the best setting to bring out detail. I'll explain this in a later post.
This process is really similar to the way you look at a scene with your eye. You only look at one little bit at a time, and the bit you look at is kept in proper "exposure" by your iris constantly adjusting. The spot you look at is never too bright, or too dark, but just right!
That is the secret to why HDR photos look so great, in my opinion! They look like you would see it if you were there.
Anyway, the photo below is an example of a 3 image HDR. My camera cannot "bracket" by itself, so I have to reset press the button 3 times! That is not fun. You can see that it looks "different" to the single image HDR above. if you click on it look at the large image, you will see places in it that are blurred, due to the breeze moving the trees between shots!
turtle pond in Bishan Park on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
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