Make an HDR Photo from a Single Exposure

Yesterday I talked about HDR photography, and how you can combine multiple exposure photos of the same scene with software to ensure all the different parts of the scene are exposed the right amount.  What I didn’t mention is that you can also use the Photomatix software to create an HDR photo using “tonemapping” from just a single RAW image.

The key is the information that is stored in a RAW photo (i.e. before it gets compressed into a JPEG).  The Photomatix software can use all of that information that looks like it has been combined from multiple image.  It takes some experimentation to find an image where it ends up “working” – here’s my best example so far.  It’s definitely a good argument for setting up your camera to take dual JPEG and RAW photos, if you have the space.

DSC02938_tonemapped

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