How to take HDR photos?
I finally got myself in motion to capture a sunrise… not very far in action, only to the backyard. I don’t know what I will do in Maine when sunrise comes 2 hours earlier. Ugh. I didn’t actually get dressed; I just ran out in my pjs and set up the shoot. Here’s how I did it…
Wait! What is HDR?
It stands for high dynamic range. A camera cannot see like a human eye to see the colors in the sky, but also the details in the shadows. So, if the camera is programmed to capture the detail in the shadows, then the color in the sky is washed out, but to capture the vibrance of the sky, the shadows become silhouettes. What to do? To take an HDR photo, my process is to bracket the shot and layer the images to create an image more similar to what the eye sees. Here’s how I do it, and no, I did not take that picture with my phone
sunrise setup
Camera Body Nikon Z7, this is a relatively new acquisition, and I’m still learning, but it is awesome.
Lens AFS NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8 ED, with an FTZ mount adapter. Read my review of this lens here. The ultra-wide angle is amazing for landscapes.
Tripod Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB 100. Baby Sis brought this on our fall shoot in Maine, and I really liked it. It’s big for a travel tripod, but it is sturdy, and the controls are easy to use. She bought me one of my own for my birthday. UPDATE: I now use the Peak Design Travel Tripod for almost everything and highly recommend it.
Shutter Release Cord Nikon MC-DC2. I also have a wireless remote, but it requires you to be in front of the camera, so the cord is better. You need a shutter release to prevent the camera from shaking when you press the shutter. The workaround is to use a shutter delay, but the remote is a much better option.
Bug Spray – mosquitos love sunrise
settings
Start with a clean memory card and charged batteries. Then, I usually format the card and clean the sensor – to start fresh.
It’s good to double-check all the settings because I was shooting birds the day before, which requires an entirely different setup… so get everything ready.
Ideally, I get the settings ready the night before and leave the camera outside (on the covered porch) overnight so that the lens doesn’t fog over, going from air conditioning to humidity.
Release Mode Single Shot
AF-area mode Single-Point AF
Focus mode Single AF
Shooting Menu
a7 AF Activation Shutter/AF-ON. Using the back button for focusing is helpful for action photography, but for landscapes on a tripod, I tend to forget to refocus and have blurry shots.
Auto Bracketing Set 5 shots, increment of 1.0
Manual Mode Open the lens to the widest aperture, in this case, f/2.8, and set the focus point on an area of high contrast in the distance, then adjust the shutter speed until the ISO is between 100-200. As the lighting changes, the shutter speed gets faster.
processing
How to process HDR images. In the end, there is a series of five frames: 1 at the proper exposure, then -2; -1; +1; +2. I then import the images into a software program called Aurora, specially designed for HDR, to create a layered image.
Aurora has a lot of tools to develop the image further, but I tend to be faster in Lightroom, so at that point, I import it into Lightroom for the final tweaks ~ ta-da.
