How To HDR Photo Tutorial

While the majority of people creating HDR pictures are using Photomatix and to a lesser degree, Photoshop, a new free option called HDRtist is out for OSX. HDRtist is a simple easy to use HDR option for those of you looking to try out HDR photography without the watermark from the trial version of Photomatix or the expense of Photoshop.

Send us your pictures created with HDRtist and tell us what you think!

I just found a neat little iPhone app called HDR for Free which does a fake hdr effect on your iPhone pictures. It looks like the results are pretty good at low resolution. A little HDR fun on the iPhone is always a good time.

Paul has a lot of very good points in his guide for 10 Top Tips for Stunning HDR pictures. He covers a lot of topics that are in the How To Take HDR Photos ebook,  like always using a tripod when possible, taking pictures with a lot of contrast in the lighting, and even a quick quide to create an HDR and tone-map in Photoshop!

Qtpfsgui is an HDR program that allows you to merge and tone-map HDR photos. It isn’t as simple as Photomatix but has the potential to create very similar results. If you’re new to HDR photography and are not sure about buying software at first, this is your best option.

First, download the application file for your opperating system at the Qtpfsgui website here.

For Windows you will need the lated Windows DLL Package V4 to run the program which you can download from the Qtpfsgui website here.

For Mac OS X, you will need to download QT4 to run the program which you can download here.

The interface is a bit confusing but with enough experimentation you will be able to create HDR photos without buying any additional software. For those of you looking for something that is easier to use and still very affordable, check out our guide to using Photomatix.

This example of an HDR photo compared to a regular picture. I generated the 32-bit HDR image and then tone-map it with Photomatix. Then I’ll add the original picture back in Photoshop using blending modes, cross processing actions, and sharpening to finish it off.