Creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photographs with Only One Picture

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is getting quite a following from both professional and amateur photographers all around the world. So if you are interested in creating HDR images from some of your favorite photographs that you have taken on your vacations, or just around the house, then this guide will show you how easy it can be to do. Before we get started, let's quickly cover the basics of HDR photography.

HDR photographs are usually created by taking between 3-5 images with a digital camera at different EV (exposure values) and then importing them into software that then merges the variously exposed images into one final photograph. The final result is one single image that has a very dynamic range (thus the name) of lights and darks that can not be created by a single exposure.

We will not cover the actual processing of an image with HDR software. The purpose of this article is to show how easy it is to take one single photograph and then save it as multiple exposures in order to import it into the HDR software you choose to use.

1. Get Photo-Editing Software - Either purchase photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop (side note: versions CS2 and beyond have HDR imaging built into them) or simply download the free, yet wildly popular, GIMP. GIMP is similar to Photoshop but doesn't come with such a high price tag (or even a price tag at all!)

2. Open up the Photograph - Open the photograph that you wish to create into an HDR image using your photo editing software.

3. Locate the Curves Tool - Once the image is opened locate the tool entitled "Curves:

In GIMP: Tools / Color Tools / Curves
In Photoshop: Ctrl M or Image / Adjustments / Curves

4. Using the Curves Tool - With the Curves tool opened up you can then alter the exposure value of the image with just the touch of the mouse. The Curves tool will look like a multiple squared grid with a straight line with a black dot in the middle of it. In order to change the exposure value of the image just click on the black dot on the middle of the line and drag it up (to overexpose) or down (to underexpose) the image. The result will be an arched line and you should see the exposure and overall look of the image change darker or lighter. (As a rule of thumb, each square you drag the line across is equal to + or - 1 exposure value.)

5. Save the Curved Images in TIFF or JPEG - Each time you alter the curves tool and adjust the exposure value by +/- 1 EV then click "Save As" to save the image as its own separate file. (I have saved several "curved" images as 16-TIFF files as well as JPEG files and have seen that both can work very well. I would encourage saving your images as both TIFF and JPEG and see what works best for your HDR Software)

6. Saving 3-5 Different Exposures - In order to create a good looking HDR you will probably need somewhere between 3-5 exposures. A good idea would be to save 2 images overexposed (+1 EV, +2 EV), 2 images underexposed (- 1 EV, - 2 EV) and then the originally exposed image.

Now you are ready to input your images into your HDR Software. I use Dynamic Photo HDR for my images and I am extremely happy with it. It costs about $55 at the time of this writing. I uploaded an HDR image of the Wilson Arch in Utah that I created along with this article to show you what the final result will be if you follow the steps above. There are several other popular HDR software available. The following is a list of a few:

Photomatix Pro - $99USD at the time of this writing (There is a free trial that applies a watermark to the final image.)

Easy HDR - Approx $43USD at the time of this writing

Photoshop CS4 - $699 at the time of this writing

Qtpfsgui - Tough to spell but FREE. (Personally I tried this program and found that spending a little money on a program really does go a long way in increasing the user-friendly aspect that is very needed when making HDR photographs)