Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

You can also combine differently exposed photos

of the same scene to get one that is more repre-

sentative of what you saw or just more interesting

using HDR. For example, Figure 5-20 shows an

HDR image created from seven separate expo-

sures of the same scene that ranged from –3 to +3.

The one that was the closest to what I wanted

was actually the –1 exposure, but combining

them gave me a better image than any of the

separate images did.

If you are not happy with the results using any of

the exposure modes, and would rather not auto

bracket the exposures, you can also use exposure

compensation to fine tune the exposure to get the

result you want. Taking the photo of the carousel

Each situation requires you to decide which mode
is the right one, but because you are working
with digital photography, I would suggest trying
different modes and seeing what the differences
are. For those situations where none of the expo-
sure modes seems to be giving you the best
results, consider bracketing your exposures. This
way you can get slightly different exposures for
the same scene and decide which one works best
for you later when reviewing the images on the
computer screen.

x-ref Bracketing was covered in Chapter 2.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The Sundae Cones neon sign drew my eye at the food court at the fair. I believe it might have been the healthiest
option, and it sure was one of the more colorful ones. This was a seven-image HDR created using Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro. The shutter speeds
were 1/1250 second, 1/640 second, 1/320 second, 1/200 second, 1/125 second, 1/50 second, and 1/25 second, all at f/4.5, and ISO 250.

5-20