So, this is a new one for me. In an effort to improve my landscape photography after the holiday to New Zealand, I decided to experiment with HDR (high dynamic range). The concept is simple, the eye has a far higher dynamic range than the camera i.e. it can simultaneously interpret very bright and very dark scenes. The camera, however, struggles with this. Therefore, at times such as sunset and sunrise, you achieve beautiful colours and a black foreground, for example.
This looks nice, obviously. But, how to achieve what the eye sees?
Well, the technique works as follows: to achieve “reality” in a camera, you take multiple exposures (bracketing) and merge the results. As such, you need a tripod (check), an expensive camera (double check) and some expensive software (triple check)… you get the idea that your iPhone won’t be doing this!
Then, more importantly, you need something cool to photograph where there is a high dynamic range. Put simply, a well times work trip to San Fran offered a great opportunity (there is a bridge there that looks alright).
The down side is that sunrise is at 5 in the morning (hate that), but at least it keeps one on European time.
So, here are the six bracketed shots:
Merge them together, crop a bit and…. voila!
