P#18 Q4B: Are There Any Other HDR Photography Mistakes You Commonly See?
Tony Sweet offers a few tips to help you avoid the other big HDR photography mistakes
Tony had said there were a few common mistakes made when people begin exploring HDR photography, and he wasn't exaggerating. HDR photography is a bit more involved than just pointing and shooting your camera. Here he explains the other common mistake people tend to make.
You're Not a Tripod
Tony Sweet: Hand-holding the camera is probably one of the other biggest mistakes people make with HDR photography.
Audri Lanford: Yeah, I can see where that would be a problem.
Tony Sweet: In some cases it can work. I did a shoot last week in Utah where I hand-held the camera, but only because the shutter speed was so fast and I had it on continuous fire. It probably fired off all five exposures in a second or less.
In that case that might work, but if you're doing five half-minute exposures, good luck to you. Even without coffee, it'd be difficult.
Audri Lanford: You are right. When you do this, you mentioned that you like to shoot this in aperture priority. Is this because you want to keep the aperture the same in all of your images?
Tony Sweet: Sure. That's why it's aperture priority, but also because if I use my exposure compensation dial to do my minus one, minus two, plus one, plus two, etc. -- if I compensate that way, then I know that it's going to be exactly one stop or exactly two stops.
Like I say, the software prefers one-stop increments. When you do that, it's exactly one stop. It's a computer. It's either exactly one stop or it's not.
Audri Lanford: I think a lot of people don't realize how important that one full stop is for HDR photography. That's not something you hear about often, so I'm really glad you've emphasized that.
Tony Sweet: I think it's critical. The software will try to blend it and a box will come up saying there's an exposure conflict or something. Then you have to select and change things. When you're working with HDR photography, It's just better to get it done right the first time.
In Closing
As steady as you may think you're hand is, you're no substitute for a tripod. When working with HDR photography, you need your aperture to be the same throughout all of the images, and bracket by one-stop increments while keeping the image exactly the same. Only a tripod can guarantee that will happen.
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