Getting tired of this HDR stuff yet? I hope not, there’s a lot more coming.  If you are just joining us be sure to check out the last few posts to get up to speed.

keepin it steady

Since we established last time around that you either have or have not a digital camera that can handle manual settings, this time we need to figure out what you are going to do with it if you do have it. More specifically, where are you going to put it. Without getting extremely in-depth (just yet) about the why, suffice it to say that it is fundamental to HDR photography (for the most part) that you have a way to keep your camera completely still for more than one photo at a time. As stated so eloquently by Trey Ratcliff, ”unless you have the steady arms of a late-model Terminator robot” you’d better have a tripod so that you can handle something called ‘bracketing‘, which we will be discussing later.

Depending on the heft of your camera model you might have some issues to address. You are going to *need* a tripod to hold your camera completely still. Blurry pictures just don’t tend to command the awe and respect of your peeps the way that a razor-sharp, crispity-cracklin’ photo will and the fact is that the process of creating high dynamic range images will accentuate any blur, camera shake, or shifts from one frame to the next. So go forth, find a tripod, and keep it solid.

In continuation of my last post, this evening’s edition also has to do with HDR photography. This time around we will begin taking a look at the hardest part of this whole game…getting the gear.

It is no surprise to anyone that has been involved in photography for any amount of time that this is no poor man’s hobby, relatively speaking. Having invested several hard-earned pennies myself I can say I feel your pain if you are one of those considering the investment.  But never fear, you don’t have to have the absolute newest, biggest, baddest camera setup to do this stuff. Let’s take a look.

The first item on the ticket tonight is pretty much a giveaway. You gotta have a camera. But what kind of camera? Nikon? Canon? Hasselblad? Think broader.

Simply put, you need a DIGITAL camera. Is that specific enough for you? Hope so.

Let’s just say you can give it a try with the camera you already have. If you have one of those big fancy SLR type cameras you have nothing to worry about. If you have something else, something smaller, just hold on for a minute before you rush out to buy something new. You might find that all you need to do is take a look at your instruction manual. Many recent models of consumer ‘point-and-shoot’ type cameras actually have the manual settings needed to shoot HDR.

I’ll keep this brief tonight because you might potentially have a big assignment here. So without any further ado, here is your new task:

1. Look at your camera. Go into the menu and find out what that little digital beastie can really do. What you need to find out is whether or not your camera can shoot in any shape or form of Manual mode. We will discuss the reason why just a little bit later, but before we can go on this is a very important step, it will determine whether you need to go out and drop some dough on a new rig. While you’re at it, figure out how to use the manual settings too!

Copyright 2009 Chad Westover