How to create HDR?

The main reason that I love to create HDR photo is because of its vibrant of color. It can turn bored & unbalanced lighting photo into stunning and attractive photo. For me, this is worth to create HDR because I can get encouraging end result without using high end DSLR or expensive lens. However, photography skill still playing the most important part like get good combination, angle & etc in order to make better look HDR.

Many internet friends and photography newbies always asking me about what is HDR and how to make HDR after seeing my HDR photos. Here I'm not going to explain what is HDR because there are many articles elaborating it when you type HDR in google search engine. But here I would like to share some of the simple tips and steps that I always used to create HDR. Hopefully you can learn something from here;

1. Normally, we only need 3 different exposure photos as input file for HDR creating tool. Some people like to shot 3 different exposure photograph by using camera bracketing feature but this is not my preference because this may cause ghosting effect in HDR photo especially for moving objects. I prefer to create 3 different exposure JPG format photo from a RAW format photo by using photoshop.





2. My favorite HDR creating tool is Photomatix because it's more user friendly & the generated HDR is superb. Firstly, select the three images with +1, 0, -1 exposure value and continue with generate HDR options. At HDR options step, I prefer to select reduce noise & chromatic aberrations setting. And then followed by tone mapping step and there are many setting & buttons to play around. Tone mapping is the most important step throughout HDR generation and this is subjective to individual's preference. I always prefer to tune the setting as natural look as possible without losing photo details.

3. Final photoshop work on generated HDR image need to be carried out like clearing some dust spot, adjusting contrast, brightness, sharpness & etc....