Japan - Fuji HDR

One aspect of photography that I've wanted to try is HDR photography.  The acronym stands for "high dynamic range", and relies on a technique to get the shadows and highlights to display in a way that mimics the 13+ stops available to the human eye.  In other words, the shadows show a great amount of detail without drowning in the darkness, and the highlights are all there without blowing out.  The technique involves taking a series of photographs of exactly the same thing at different exposures.  The pictures are blended in Photoshop or another program, where the darker exposures preserve the highlights, and the lighter exposures bring out the shadows.

Naturally the Big Cahoona can do this with ease.  That capability, along with the bracketing practice I got in Taiwan the previous week, was recipe for a first trial.

The trick in HDR is to capture exactly the same image in the different exposures, and conventional wisdom dictates the use of a tripod.  Didn't have a tripod on this trip - and wouldn't have been carrying it around with my family even if I did - but very fortunately found myself in some spots that enabled bump-free shooting, away from the masses.

The photo at top was taken in a small town we passed through, and was done with two shots...the lighter exposure captured shadow detail admirably, and the darker exposure did a fairly good job with the mountain and sky.  I was able to hold the camera still enough between shots to enable Photoshop to line them up without too much trouble.  Turned out well for a first try.

The pic at bottom is another matter, however.  With what was probably the best $3.00 investment made during the trip, I broke away from the peeps and gained access to a platform built on the roof of a museum.  From there a visitor can view Fuji with the awesome setting that you see in the foreground.  The HDR was taken with five separate exposures, though in post-capture I just couldn't get it to balance.  I've kept the original JPEG's from which it was created, so can possibly go back someday to re-work it, or buy Photomatix and get a tutorial online.