It seems that most people can take really good pictures with a digital camera. If one learns how to adjust the basic settings: aperture, shutter speed, and iso. So it seems what really separates the good photos from the great photos is what one is able to do with them after the click occurs.
Post-processing, the modifications that occur after the photo is out of the camera. This can be the most daunting challenge for photographers. What style should I learn? Should I practice black and white, photorealism, high dynamic range, or just strictly color photography? There are a number of different methods and all can look spectacular.
One of the above mentioned techniques that is gaining a lot of traction in recent years is high dynamic range (HDR) photography. What this practice entails is is taking multiple images, anywhere from two to as many as 9 or 10 in some cases, all at varying exposure levels and then combining the images together. When one takes a photo that is underexposed it is dark because the camera did not have enough light to fully expose the photo. Conversely, when the photo is taken overexposed it is too light. These photos on their own probably won't look very well. But there are places that the overexposed photo looks better than the properly exposed photo, and the same holds true for the underexposed photo and the properly exposed photo. Putting all of these photos together and taking the best of each of them can create a photo with a wide array of colors and contrast.
At the top of the page is an example of a recent HDR photo I took while at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado in May 2009. I would not have been able to get the range of colors in the clouds, nor in the sandstone bricks if I did not use an HDR method. If you are interested in HDR there are many fabulous tutorials out there on it including:
http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/
http://www.backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html
And finally, to see more of my HDR images as well as my general photography please check out my photos. NocoJoe Photography
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