Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Creating HDR Images

Once you get used to peeking at the histogram, you’ll notice that very few images exploit the full range of brightness values from light to dark. More often than not, you’ll have more info on one end of the histogram than the other, meaning the highlights or shadows look really good, but rarely both. That’s because digital cameras can collect only so much data in a single shot. If you’ve got a scene with both light and dark areas—like a black cat on a light background—you have to choose which area to expose for: the cat or the background. To capture more info, you can shoot multiple versions of the same shot at different exposure values (called EVs) by varying your camera’s shutter speed, aperture, or ISO, and then combine ’em in Photoshop into what’s known as a high dynamic range (HDR) image.

Adobe has put a lot of effort into making it easy for mere mortals to create HDR images. But before you get started, you need to dig out your camera’s manual and hunt for a feature called auto bracketing, which makes the camera take a series of shots with different exposure settings (you can also set the exposure differences up yourself manually—see your camera’s manual to learn how). Bracketing lets you tell the camera how many shots to take (use a minimum of three, though more is better) and how much of an exposure difference you want between each one (pick one or two EV steps if you have the choice). For example, for three shots, you’d have one at normal exposure, one ...