High dynamic range photography, also known as HDR, is a great way to create a photograph and retain as much detail in the highlights and shadows as possible.\u00a0In its early years, HDR made its way into headlines when photographers created surreal, unnatural, and overly contrasty images (if you’d like to see examples of what not<\/em> to do, head over to this subreddit<\/a>). While I may have been slightly guilty of this in my earlier years, my preference for HDR is to create a natural-looking image without the qualities of an over-processed image. In this article, I will share my techniques to create this effect. I will also share how to process these images with Lightroom CC Classic so that you can get the most natural-looking HDR results.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> What is HDR?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li> What scenes work best for HDR?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li> Photographing for HDR<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li> Processing HDR images in Lightroom<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div> HDR (high dynamic range) photography is when you create a photograph from a high-contrast scene that includes detail in the shadows and highlight areas. You can achieve this by photographing multiple images at once using bracketing, and then merging those images together using post-processing software (more on this later in this article). This form of photography is exclusive to digital photography, as film was able to capture more detail in one frame than we can with our current digital cameras.<\/p>\n<\/div> Any scene that has a lot of contrast between the dark areas and bright areas is typically a good candidate for HDR scenes. A good example is a landscape scene where the foreground is much darker than the sky; using HDR will help you get the entire scene with a more balanced exposure overall. Some examples of subjects that work well with HDR include:<\/p>\n Here are some general tips to set you in the right direction:<\/p>\n To create an HDR, you first need to have a series of exposure-bracketed images<\/strong>. This means that you photograph several frames of the same scene (I usually photograph 5 or 7 frames) at different exposures. Most cameras will have some type of bracketing feature, allowing you to configure your settings and press the shutter once to create each frame. You typically will be able to select how many frames<\/strong> you want to photograph, along with the exposure interval between each frame.<\/p>\n For example, with a five-frame bracket and a 1-stop exposure, you would have:<\/p>\n Here are some tips on how to accomplish this:<\/p>\n The following images show an example of a five-frame series of HDR brackets with a 1.5-exposure stop in-between each frame:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Lightroom CC Classic offers an easy way to process HDR photos, with many benefits. Here are some of the reasons I prefer using Lightroom to merge my HDR images:<\/p>\n Here’s how to merge your HDR-bracketed images using Lightroom CC Classic:<\/p>\n<\/div> First, access the files you want to use in Lightroom within the grid view<\/strong> in the Library module<\/strong>. Then, select all of the raw images to highlight them. In this example, I have five images from this series.<\/p>\n Tip: To select multiple images in Lightroom, click the first image in the group, press and hold the SHIFT key, then click the last image.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div> Now, go to Photo > Photo Merge > HDR<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: There is no need to make any edits to your photographs before merging them; the final output will be a DNG (raw) file, so you will want make your edits to the final version instead of editing the files beforehand.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>Quick Links:<\/h2><\/div>
<\/span> What is HDR?<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/h1><\/div>
<\/span> What scenes work best for HDR?<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/h1><\/div>
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<\/span> Photographing for HDR<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/h1><\/div>
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<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span> Using Lightroom to process your HDR photos<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/h1><\/div>
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Lightroom HDR merging: Step-by-step<\/h2><\/div>
Step 1: Access your bracketed files<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/span><\/div>Step 2: Merge the files<\/span><\/h3>\n
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