Some HDR Testing

After explore some old sets of image I took in the UK to rediscover HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, I decided to try a few tests while at the Japanese Gardens here in Toowoomba.

The image above is taken with the D800E mounted on a tripod and polarizing filter in front. Five images were taken at 0, +/- 1, and +/-2 stops from the metered exposure. Nice, intense colors and a good dynamic range.

Next is the same process but now with much longer exposure using a ND filter on the front the longest exposure time was 30 seconds. Again, lots of color saturation and now a glassy smooth pond surface as is typical of the longer exposures.

Finally, here is a single exposure that I've processed. I'd say that in this case, I don't really need the time and effort of an HDR image, Capture One has done a very nice job of bringing out the inherent dynamics range of the Nikon.

To push the experiment a bit further, I repeated the process with an infrared filter and converted the result to B&W.

Again, the longer exposures required smooth ehe water and blur the clouds. They don't register well from image to image since they move between shots and it makes for slightly odd shapes.

Here is just a single image process in Capture One and the Nik Silver Effects.

I'd say I don't often need the complicated HDR method to capture full dynamic range images. What say you?