I've been infatuated recently with HDR images.  HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Basically its a way to incorporate all the image you see in a single image. Since a single photo can't do it because of the nature of photographs and how it actually works you need to do something different.

After digging around and looking for some free software to use to try to make my own HDR images I found nothing I found both easy and satisfactory. B showed me what Paint Shop Pro X2 could do and I was hooked. The interface is simple and the results are awesome.

The way it works is each image is actually comprised of 3 photos. One Under exposed, one perfectly exposed, and one over exposed. Each photo has a different range of detail. The under exposed image has sharper shadows, where as the over exposed has better highlights. You just load them into Paint Shop Pro X2 in the HDR Merge function and set 2 sliders. Thats it.

Paint Shop Pro X2 has a nifty align feature that will get all the images lined up if you are free shooting, but I find it best to use a tripod. Cheap tripods are fine for hobbyists like us and make a world of difference in getting perfect shots.

Check out the before and after photos below. Since I don't want to jack up the page with a ton of photos, I'll just show the regular exposed image, and then the HDR image. Now you can make them a little less surreal by where the slider is set, but I like them a bit crazy.

Anyways check it out.


Mundane Office Shot


Cool HDR Mundane Office Shot


Simple Shot of My Kitchen


HDR Photo Of Kitchen


Photo Of Back yard through Window


HDR of Back Yard


Photo of woods Near a Friends house


HDR of woods.


Photo of the Sun on a Busy Street


Same Skyshot in HDR


For more information on HDR check out HDR on Wikipedia.
Also Check out Corels Paint Shop Pro X2