FEATURE52 +:0 | MAY 2017
HACK #4:
CREATING A HIGH
DYNAMIC RANGE
(HDR) PHOTO
To capture the scene you see before you, Tristan said he
waited for 1.5 hours; staying near an Italian café just so
he wouldn’t miss the timing for his shot. His camera was
mounted on a sturdy tripod and he used a 10X Neutral
Density ÷ lter to take a long exposure, giving that dreamy
feel of the water.
In total, he shot about seven different exposures, with
one stop difference in each exposure. He ÷ nally used
only three – with priority given to the sky, the water and
the beach in the foreground. With these three exposures
selected in Lightroom, Triston right-clicked to get the
Photo Merge menu, and selected HDR.
Next, he applied the Graduated Filter Tool to bring out
the shadow detail of the pebbles on the beach. Note that
he aligned this ÷ lter according to the angle of the beach,
and also used the same tool to bring up the saturation of
the sky and the sunset.
Triston then adjusted the overall tonality of the photo
with some minor adjustments to contrast and clarity.
Finally, he lifted the exposure of the huge rocks in the
foreground just a little via the Adjustment Brush Tool.