How To Create High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photos
Creating an HDR photo is easy in Lightroom Classic. First, you have to make sure your camera can take multiple exposures at differing EV settings. I am using my Leica Q2 camera and it has a setting in the Menu → Drive Mode → Exposure Bracketing. Within this menu I can choose the Number of Frames, EV Steps, Exposure Compensation, and whether to have it done Automatically or not. For example, for the HDR photos below, I chose 5 frames, an EV step of 1EV, an Exposure Compensation of 0EV, and Automatic On. When Automatic is On, the camera takes all the images at once.
I did not use a tripod in photographing the original images, but Lightroom’s deghosting feature, discussed below, got rid of some movement artifacts in the resulting HDR photos. If you use a tripod this will help to eliminate motion artifacts from image-to-image.
Two Examples of HDR Photos
The five photos of Hudson River Ice, exposed at 1EV intervals, and the final HDR photo are shown below.
Another example shows five exposures of pylons at Long Dock Park in Beacon, NY. The next image shows the HDR photo.
For the purpose of this demonstration, Substack has a limit on the size of the images that can appear in a post, so these are JPEG files, much reduced in size and quality. If you would like to download the original DNG files, please send me an email and I will provide you with a link to the files stored on my Dropbox.
Process for Creating HDR Photos in Lightroom
Within Lightroom Classic select the five images to be merged, use the drop-down menu Photo → Photo Merge → HDR and wait for the HRD image to be rendered. You will get a window showing an HDR Preview and will be asked about the Deghosting level (None, Low, Medium and High) you wish to use. You will want to get rid of ghost artifacts that may appear in your photos. I chose a Deghosting setting of Low to get rid of some double-edges, and created the final HDR image by pressing the Merge button. The same settings were used for the Pylons at Long Dock Park photos.
Although HDR images may be large, say 150 megabytes, the high dynamic range is worth it, especially for photos taken in low-light environments. In my next post, I will discuss how to edit HDR photos in Lightroom Classic.
You're making me miss photography!
Hi @LausanneDavisCarpenter,
I recently purchased a LUMIX S5iix which is light and shoots RAW as well as video. I can also use my Leica lenses as Panasonic is a member of the L-Mount Alliance with includes Leica, Panasonic and Sigma, DJI and BlackMagic.
I bought it a B&H in New York City. It was may first time there and it is a very impressive place.