Not bad, eh!  For comparison, here’s a regular photo of the same shot (what I normally would have produced before the magic of HDR) -

Pretty amazing difference.

Here’s a quick screencast on how to create amazing HDR photographs using Photomatix Pro:

Here’s another video on using Photomatix that gets really specific on Tone Mapping.

Just for my own notes:

• Nikon D60 on A (Aperture) mode
• manually set exposure to +2 / 0 / -2 for 3 consecutive shots
• batch process in Photomatix Pro

I messed around with the Nikon this morning and learned a lot about exposure and such.  There’s a ton to learn but it’s actually really interesting to me.

Here are two example photos.  On the bottom is the one that is HDR merged from Photoshop.  I definitely need to learn more about editing the photos in there but at least this time I learned how to export it as a jpg.  Had to adjust from 32-bit to 16-bit.  I guess this means the amount of data (in bits) stored in the actual image file.  I think 32-bit is just too much data for a jpg to contain so Photoshop wouldn’t even let me save as jpg until I made it 16-bit.

On the top is the middle of the 3 photos (0.0 exposure).  I’ve included it for comparison as it is pretty much the regular shot I would have taken before all this HDR stuff.

In comparison, the HDR (bottom) does have better color in the highlights of the plants, but the laptop is totally washed out.  Oh well, got some more experimenting to do I guess, but this is fun!

Menu > Release Mode > Continuous

• P: Programmed Auto – camera sets shutter speed and aperture for optimal exposure. Recommended when there is little time to adjust camera settings.
• S: Shutter-Priority Auto – camera automatically adjusts aperture for optimal exposure
• A: Aperture-Priority Auto – camera automatically adjusts shutter speed for optimal exposure
• M: Manual – you control both shutter speed and aperture

1. Matrix (default): Camera meters a wide area of the frame and instantly sets exposure according to distribution brightness, color, distance, and composition for natural results.
2. Center-weighted: Camera meters entire frame but assigns greatest weight to center area. Classic meter for portraits
3. Spot: Camera meters exposure in active focus point only. Ensures that the subject will be correctly exposed, even the background is much brighter or darker.

Rule of thumb:

• positive when main subject is darker than background
• negative when main subject is brighter than background

• reduces exposure
• highlights, shadows and mid-tones are then adjusted
• achieves optimal brightness

“Active” will adjusts the exposure before shooting to optimize the dynamic range, whereas regular D-Lighting option in the Retouch menu optimizes dynamic range in images after shooting.

I recently purchased the Nikon D60 camera for shooting virtual tour photos for my company TourVista Virtual Tours. This is a great camera, and my buddy Boosh who is a seasoned professional photographer passed along this advice for getting the most out of my pix:

With the D60 you should have the capability to shoot in RAW and jpg. I have my D200 set to shoot both. The RAW file captures all info and looks like crap at first, no worries, it is literally the RAW capture. Think of it as your negative.

Open in Photoshop (PS) will open a sub program (assuming you have recent copy of PS) that will allow you huge latitude changes. Once your happy with the result, do a SAVE AS, and save off the adjusted image as a tiff file. The next time you open up Adobe Bridge and access that pic, your preview will be that of the adjusted RAW file (so it will look good) but holds onto those adjustments in a side file, leaving the RAW file intact for future adjustments. Then use the tiff version for your work….. So that will help with quality. RAW files are large so you might invest in an exterior drive for additional storage.

Clarity is probably a result of a couple of things, either singular or composite. Shooting inside you tend to have slower shutter speeds, use a tripod or at least a monopod. Changing the ISO of the ‘film’ is OK but I prefer to shoot at iso 100, maybe 200 as the more sensitive you set the ‘film’, the more noise that tends to show up in the image. Or it could be the glass your using. You can have the best camera body made, but with so-so glass its hard to take a sharp image.

Now, for your quick renditions for the biz, that may be fine with a little unsharp mask action. But for anything you may want to print, personal stuff, trips… its better to make a sharp capture and not “fix” it in Photoshop.

Thanks Boosh! See some of his work at www.jeffboucher.com