Rick Sammon's HDR Photography Secrets for digital photographers

A Walk Before the Run: Basic Photography Tips

Yes! This book is about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. And you are going to love the extraordinary results of HDR techniques.

But keep in mind that photography is photography—no matter what you call your approach or delivery. That's why this book begins with tips that will not only help your HDR techniques; they will improve all of your photography.

So you will not find any HDR tech talk in this Preface. You'll find it in the other chapters; but for now, let's focus on the basics of photography.

To illustrate my tips, I use some of my favorite pictures of vintage cars (and one truck) that I shot during my travels. You'll learn how to create similar HDR images in this book, so stay with me here.

Make Photographs

Before you can approach HDR work, it's important to understand this very basic first tip: Make pictures; don't simply take pictures. There is a big difference between the two!

Making pictures is fun and creative. It's about adding your signature touch to the images you create. Conversely, taking pictures is more of a snap-and-go process. There's not much creative thought involved.

For example, I made this picture by including something in the scene that very few photographers would include in a picture: my own shadow. I also made ...