It's been a while...

...but now I'm back! I had some health issues (I'm allergic to corn, who would have guessed!) and we moved! We're back in North Carolina along the coast & it feels great to be back in my home state!

I thought my first tutorial from my looooong absence should be one that's super cool & really helpful. So I decided to help you guys out with some HDR images!!! Aren't you excited?!

HDR stands for high dynamic range. You know how you take pictures of something and there are areas that are so white you can't see anything and other areas that are so black you can't see anything? I'm here to help! Now, this doesn't work if you're photographing people, but this is really great for things like...I dunno....a pier. (We have lots of those around.)

Keep in mind these directions are for Photoshop. Speaking of, have you seen this? Seriously, take a look.

You'll need:
camera
tripod
PS
time
patience

Trust me. Do not do this without your tripod.

Figure you what you want to shoot...like I said, I'm going for the pier. Set up your tripod...I'll wait...seriously don't do this without a tripod.

Set your camera to manual.


Figure out your aperture: do you want the whole thing to be in focus? I set mine to f/22 because I did.

Set your shutter speed to under-develop your picture. The scale in the viewfinder should look like this with your first picture:

Set your camera to a 2 second or longer timer (or use a remote) & press the shutter. Without moving the camera, change the shutter speed until your scale looks like this:

Press the shutter. Keep progressing through the scale in the same way with your scales:

Enjoy the rest of your beach visit:

Once you're home & nursing your latest sunburn, open the files in Bridge. Select the ones you want to include in your HDR image. To create the HDR image, go to your "Tools" button on the menu bar, go down to "Photoshop", then to "Merge to HDR Pro". Let the computer do its thing...it can take a while. Go get a snack...or reapply some aloe.

When you come back it will look like this:

From here you can use the little slider bars to adjust the picture however you need to. You can also deselect pictures that are making your picture look a little weird. Just play around with it & see what you like! After you're done, you'll have something that looks like this:

Keep playing with it & try other locations. I think it adds a whole other dimension to photography. I've been tweaking one for a few days now: 

I won't be posting as often as I have in the past, but I have set a goal for once a week for myself. My new recipes will have to be corn-free so that makes things a little more difficult.