HDR (High Dynamic Range) Time Lapse Tutorial



Cameras at the moment just cannot capture the range of highlights and shadows you see through your own eyes. So the idea of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is to emulate the dynamic range of the human eye and show how it appears naturally to your eye.


What you need


Production

1 - DSLR (able to take multiple exposures)

Canon 5D

2 - Remote Timer with multiple settings - click here to buy one

remote timer intervalometer

Post-Production

1 - Photomatix Pro - hdrsoft.com

(If you find Photomatix induces flicker, use sns-hdr pro)

Photomatix 2.5

2 - Adobe After Effects - adobe.com/products/aftereffects/

After Effects

Steps


Production

1 - Set up camera

  Digislider HDR tutorial Camera set up on tripod
2 - Set DSLR to Manual mode (or AV if you decide to pick a place where exposure changes - but will probably get a flicker which you will probably de-flicker later)
  Digislider HDR tutorial Camera Settings to Manual Mode
3 - Set up multiple exposures
  Digislider HDR tutorial Setting multiple exposures
4 - Set to continuous shoot mode
  Digislider HDR tutorial continuous shoot mode
5 - Set your timer. Make sure set the longevity (how long the shutter is held down for) to as long as necessary to take continuous photos so all exposures are taken one after the other.
  Digilsider HDR Tutorial Set Camera to Continuous Shooting
Post-production
Photomatix
1 - Load multiple exposures of one shot into PhotoMatix ("Load Bracketed Photos") and save preset or if you know what default preset you want, jump to 2.
  Digislider HDR Load multiple Exposures
2 - Batch Bracketed Photos (select preset by clicking on "setting" next to "Tone map with Details Enhancer")
  Digislider HDR Batch Bracketed Photos
3 - select the number of images to process (equivalent to the number of different exposures you took)
 
Digislider HDR tutorial select images you want to process

4 - select source and destination folders

5 - click "run" (this can take a long time)


After Effects

6 - Import as sequence (you will probably have to click on the "force alphabetical order" box)

Digislider HDR tutorial Import Sequences


7 - Drop the sequence into a composition

Digislider HDR tutorial Drop the sequence into the composition

8 - Render

9 - Done


For HDR using a portable slider, check out the Digislider and it's motorised upgrades - www.digislider.co.uk


We tried to keep it short and sweet, but if it is not indepth enough for you, this tutorial from Dustin Farrell may be better suited.




Digislider Team
Digislider Team

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