HDR Photo taken on the Seattle waterfront, December 1, 2009.

I suppose that a lot of people are already really tired of HDR, and I admit that I have been too. When HDR techniques are used conspicuously, the resulting style is very distinctive but, consequently, also cliche. These days, when I use HDR, it is only when I need to use it subtly to bring in some extra shadow detail or reign in the highlights.

And then I a cousin of mine told me about Stuck In Customs, a blog of travel photography that is, as far as I can tell, entirely done with HDR. Some of the photos are predictably cheesy. Others, though, were pretty impressive, and I thought that I’d better do a little more experimentation with HDR myself. And so, I found myself on the Seattle waterfront last evening with a tripod and cable release, looking for scenes with high dynamic range… which, at night, was just about everything.

I framed this image thinking that I might be able to get the highlight details from the dock lights and building windows and still hold the shadow detail from the boardwalk and surrounding area. I took 5 exposures, ranging from so dark that no highlights were blown (almost black other than the lights) to so light that about 1/3 of the image was flashing as blown out on my camera back.  Continue reading »