Postcard from Yosemite–Half Dome in HDR

Here it is folks…my first photo from Yosemite, done using HDR (High Dynamic Range). To be honest, I wasn’t going to share this photo here…it was only a practice run and not one of my favorite images from my recent trip. But, right after making this very first image, my computer stopped working…just stopped dead in its tracks. I was without my computer for 24 hours.

Turns out the power supply died and I replaced it today.  Am back on line now, as you can see. But my blog is due out today, so I decided to share this first test image with you. It shows Half Dome and the Merced River, as photographed from the Centennial Bridge…a well known spot to tourists and photographers alike.

Actually it’s a good time to explain the HDR process with you. This photo is nearly impossible to get with a digital camera, or most cameras for that matter. The light on Half Dome is quite bright…but there is hardly any light on the river or the trees.  From the Valley floor, the sun has already set below the horizon. Cameras today do not have the ability to handle such a diverse range of light. 

If you go to the bottom of this blog, you will see the original photo as the camera automatically metered it. The trees are way too dark and the sky and Half Dome are almost blown out.

The HDR solution I chose here was to take five shots in quick succession, using a different exposure for each one. So in the underexposed photos, Half Dome and the sky are correctly exposed. In the overexposed images, you cannot even see the dome or the sky, but the river and trees are well lit.

In the digital darkroom (AKA my computer), I use a program called Photomatix. It takes the five images and brings out the best exposure for each part of the picture and then combines them into one. But, it is far from perfect…to finish off the photo, one needs to import it into Photoshop and work more magic to make it really stand out.  

I actually darkened the trees a bit to bring it as close to what my eye saw that night…and I had to tone down the reds and yellows on Half Dome. Its great fun exploring the possibilities of HDR…so look for more HDR photos from Yosemite soon.

Here is the single shot of this image using the metering determined by my Nikon camera.  Now you know why I am excited about HDR.