Photographer's tips: How to easily create HDR images from one RAW file

Photographer’s tips: How to easily create HDR images from one RAW file

How to easily create HDR images from one RAW file

There are plenty of tutorials on how to create HDR images from pictures taken in exposure bracketing mode or a HDR-looking picture from one TIFF or JPEG image in Photoshop. What if you do not want to spend too much time on modifying an image in Photoshop? What to do if you do not have a tripod with you to take ‘bracketed’ pictures or you want to photograph a dynamic scene which would create too many ‘ghosts’? I have got a tip for you on how to create a HDR image easily and quickly.

Step one: Shot a RAW image file

I assume that your camera is able to save pictures in a RAW format. Each camera manufacturer has its own format and file extension (NEF, CRW, CR2, RAW, 3FR, ARW etc.) but all of them have one thing in common: they support files containing an unprocessed image saved exactly in the way how the sensor ‘sees’ it. So if your camera supports RAW just select a proper option and take shots as usual (consult your camera’s manual to learn how to do it).

Step two: ‘Develop’ the RAW image file

In order to create a HDR image several exposures of the same scene are required. You can create them developing a single RAW image file changing exposure settings in your RAW image processing software. Firstly, make sure that the white balance setting is correct and you might also want to apply some camera or lens specific settings like lens vignetting correction, picture profile, dust removal etc. However make sure that your presets or default options do not change parameters like contrast, brightness, fill light, blacks and recovery. Secondly, setup exposure level to ‘0’ and save the first image as JPEG or TIFF adding for example ‘_EV+0’ to the filename.

TIFF is recommended for images which are going to be processed later, since it introduces no compression artifacts.

Finally, save ‘bracketed’ images changing the exposure settings and adding corresponding strings to their filenames e.g. ‘_EV+2’, ‘_EV-2’ etc. The number of files and exposure steps depend on type of the scene. For medium dynamic range scenes (landscapes and outdoor photography) you might need three exposures taken in two-EV steps, or five exposures taken in one-EV steps. For high dynamic range scenes (e.g. subject in a room with a view outside the window on a sunny day) you need to have at least five exposures taken in two-EV steps. In this case you need to develop your RAW image within +/-4EV range from the original exposure.

Watch the movie below to see how to do this step using Adobe Lightroom 3:

Step three: merge the images and produce the HDR image

The final step depends on the HDR software you use, so refer to its documentation to learn how to create a HDR image from ‘bracketed’ image files that you created in the previous step. As an example I have merged the images using free Picturenaut and trial version of Photomatix Pro.

Here are the results:

HDR image created by Photomatix

HDR image created by Picturenaut

To HDR or not to HDR?

Am I excited about HDR photography? Not really, but photography is an art and as long as you like it (and have enough time) feel free to do it and do not care about what others say. The main purpose of this article is to give you some tips on how to create a HDR image easily in a certain situation but not to discuss pros and cons of HDR photography. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to use Highlight Tone Priority with my Canon camera or a gradual ND filter to darken the sky. Sometimes it is possible to reduce contrast of the scene changing the location or angle. The picture below shows pretty much the same scene as the HDR image above, but it was taken from a shorter distance with a gradual ND filter and a polarizer. It hasn’t been post-processed.

The Monte Rosa Massif, Alagna Valsesia, Italy

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