Chapter 4. Becoming One with Your Camera

In This Chapter

  • Understanding exposure and HDR

  • Configuring your camera for HDR

  • Using exposure compensation

  • Preparing to shoot manual brackets

  • Auto exposure bracketing

HDR photography is more than just "point and shoot." It involves understanding exposure and using your camera to set up and capture a wide dynamic range of light through brackets. If you are familiar with these concepts, HDR isn't overwhelmingly different. If you are new to photography, HDR will help you learn a great deal.

Different cameras have different features, strengths, and limitations. HDR is flexible enough to roll with the punches. It is possible to shoot HDR with cameras ranging from cheap budget compact digital cameras all the way up to the most expensive dSLRs. You can shoot single Raw exposures more casually and still have fun with pseudo-HDR, but the big payoff of pursuing HDR comes when you start to tackle the brackets.

How you do all this depends on your camera. In this chapter, I show you how to get your camera set up and ready to shoot HDR based on whether it has exposure compensation, a manual shooting mode, or full-up auto bracketing.

Becoming One with Your Camera

If you have trouble understanding some of what's going on here, remember to consult your camera's manual. There are also some pretty good For Dummies books out there that cover digital photography in general, dSLRs in general, and some ...

Get High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies® now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.