Project365 - A Little HDR

Introduction
OK, OK... I said I wanted to stay away from post-processing, and to concentrate on my basic skills. Well... What if the technique I wanted to play with was a post-processing technique ? Let me explain...
As part of my "process" I drive around the city and I see all kinds of cool things, and I wonder what it would be like to shoot them. I may scout the location four or five times, assessing everything from daylight to traffic to weather. I live near the top of a hill in Calgary. Across the valley stands Canada Olympic Park. Its a snow-sports training ground, where athletes train to ski, ski-jump, snowboard, bobsled and luge. Of course it is also open to the public, being a city-owned facility.

The Setup
Camera - Canon 60D, Lens - Canon 70-200mm f/4 L, Tripod - Manfrotto 190CX Pro 3

Simple enough - I stood on the opposite hill, set the long lens to infinity, set the Aperture to f/11, the ISO to 1000 and shot at about 1/50th of a second. I also set the camera up to bracket one full stop (+1 EV, 0 EV, -1 EV). This gave me the under-exposure, correct exposure and over exposure. Three photos to give me the lowlights & the highlights.

The Photos
This is a technique in creating High Dynamic Range (HDR). There are three images - the source files, and finally the HDR-rendered image. I am trying out a piece of trial software called "Photomatix", which is considered "the name" in the field. I haven't paid for a license, so I must live with their stamps.

The first image is under-exposed by one stop. This means it is darker, but when you watch the ski-jump you see more of the detail.

This second image is properly exposed. You can see more of the detail under the lights on the ski-hill itself. But the ski jump is a little washed out.

This image is over-exposed by one for stop. The ski-jump is completely washed out, and the ski-hill appears well-lit.

 

This photo is the HDR version. The ski jump has nice detail, and the ski-hill seems reasonably lit. You can make out more of the details in the merged image.

Lessons Learned
HDR is not easy to capture. I have a little piece of pseudo-HDR software on my iPad which works with two images. Its not all that fantastic. The more images you have to work with, the more reference points the software can include - which creates some stunning images !
The skill is in the setup. Tripod, composition, exposure, getting the bracketing set up, etc. If these are all set fairly well, you have a shot at some good HDR images. This is merely a sample of something I will likely work more on.

Just for giggles, here is the best HDR I can do on my iPad. It's passable, but nothing compared to what Photomatix does on my MacBook Pro ! Compare the individual lights on the ski-hill. It's about an order of magnitude better resolution.

Now to be fair, my iPad only gets JPEG photos, while my MacBook Pro is getting the RAW photos. Of course, that will make a huge difference.