P#18 Q7: Is There an Exercise Our Listeners Can Do to Improve Their HDR Photos?

Work With It

Tony Sweet: Don't be shy when moving the controls around. Just max them out -- push them all the way up, all the way down. Maybe grab two or three sliders and push them in extremely different directions and see what you get. The only way to get a handle on it is to find combinations of settings that work for you. You've got to get in there and move them all over the place.

Audri Lanford: And as you pointed out, you can't hurt anything.

Tony Sweet: Nobody gets hurt. People are very cautious about moving controls too much. It's just a button. Push it. It's a slider. Push it all the way and see what you get. Do that with all of them so you can get a sense of what they look like.

That will make you more facile in getting what you want and give you more of a sense of prevision so you know when you take a picture what you can do with it once you know the capabilities of the software and what it can do for you. Once you know that, then you'll be able to pre-visualize where you want things to go when you see the picture.

Audri Lanford: That's a wonderful tip. You know, we've talked about a lot of different ideas today, Tony. What is the ONE thing you most want people to remember from today's interview?

Tony Sweet: That there's no set answer, there's no set techniques. My advice would be, what I give to myself. Just search. Do a web search on HDR and read everything you can get your hands on about it. Just keep reading and reading and reading, and trying new stuff.

There are several books that are out on HDR. Many of them are very technical, but you can go to a bookstore and look at them. The important thing is to get familiar with what the software can do and learn how to expose so you get all the highlights and all the shadows. Once you get those two things nailed down, you're on your way.

Audri Lanford: Thank you so much, Tony. I'd love to ask you, since I know we're going to get this question over and over again if I don't, how can people learn more about all the things that you have to offer?

Tony Sweet: They can go to my website. My entire life is on my blog. I'm going to start calling it my blog rather than my life. Everything is on there.

The website has the online store. There's a workshop schedule that will be posted there within a month. I have a couple of a book projects going on, and I imagine the DVD HDR instructional, which will be out before Christmas -- I hope.

Better Photo classes are an ongoing thing with me too, so please check out Better Photo in general. It's a great website for online photography classes and that kind of thing.

To Sum Up

How do you improve your HDR photography? According to Tony, you need to play around with the software. Don't be afraid to push those buttons and go to extremes. Then, and only then, will your HDR photos be able to meet their true potential.