The world of film photography is quickly fading away like a poorly processed photo. For those who have digital cameras and Photoshop, there are options for manipulating and enhancing photos.

One of those options is known as HDR photography, or high dynamic range photography. HDR techniques can help make up for the digital sensor’s lack of sensitivity to scenes with a wide range of brightness values.

What is HDR?
HDR images are made from multiple exposures— usually three or more. This involves taking not one but several pictures of a given scene, overexposing some and underexposing others.

Once you have captured the images, the next step is to combine them using software such as Adobe Photoshop CS2. With Photoshop you can construct a new image with a wider dynamic range using the data from your images.

For some very good examples of HDR images, visit the Flickr HDR pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/.

How to capture the images
1. Mount your camera on a tripod.

2. Set your camera to manual exposure mode. Select the appropriate exposure for your scene and the lowest film speed setting (ISO 100 or 200 should do).

3. Measure the light in the brightest part of the scene (using spot metering settings on your camera— you may need to refer to the manual). Note the exposure time and do the same for the darkest shadows of the scene.

4. Once you have determined the highs and lows simply begin bracketing the shots. You’ll want to space them out by about plus or minus 2 stops in exposure. I suggest start at either the high or low exposure then work your way to the other (increasing or decreasing either the shutter speed by 2 values or the aperture by 2).

5. You can make use of auto-exposure bracketing if your camera supports it, and if it allows a stop spacing of 2. Otherwise, you’ll just have to vary the exposure times manually.