Perfect CombinationelptPhotoshop CS3 and Adobe Camera Raw offer two powerful tools—HDR and Photomerge—for combining images into a sum greater than their parts
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By Rick Sammon, Photography By Rick Sammon
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Basically, the greater the dynamic range of the scene, the greater number of pictures you’ll need to take. My kitchen scene had a lot of contrast, from the bright scenery outside to the shadow areas indoors. That’s why I needed to take seven exposures, one for each of the different brightness levels.
  
Here are three of the seven images used for my HDR image. As you can see, the exposure for the outside scene prevents us from seeing into the details in the kitchen. The exposure for the kitchen totally blows out the outside scene. And an average exposure shows the outside scene overexposed and the kitchen underexposed.
 To find HDR in Photoshop CS3, go to File > Automatic > High Dynamic Range. That opens the HDR dialog box. The rest is quite simple. You browse your computer and find the files you want to combine. Then press OK, and you should be good to go. It’s usually that easy.
For best HDR results, mount your camera on a tripod, use a cable release or the camera’s self-timer to further help prevent camera shake, shoot at a low ISO setting and reduce noise (either in-camera or by using Camera Raw or other noise-reduction programs). Additionally, take more exposures at different settings than you think you’ll need (at least three), keep the aperture constant and adjust the exposure via the shutter speed, and choose a nonmoving subject (although moving water may look nice).
You’ll also need some patience and some time. Combining and adjusting the seven RAW images for my HDR kitchen took about 10 minutes, after which I played with the images for another 10 minutes in Photoshop.
After your images are combined, you’ll probably find that your image needs some additional Photoshop enhancements, such as sharpening, color and contrast adjustments.
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