HDR Image Pool on Flickr

[Steve J Murray]

I do it in layers like Wick is proposing. I like the control and things don't end up looking like a cartoon. This does allow almost any dynamic range you can capture with two or more exposures.

This shot was done with two exposures: one at 1/20 for the foreground, and one at 1/125 for the bright side of the lake. Place the darker image on top of the brighter one as a new layer, select layer mask/reveal all, then "erase" with the paintbrush the parts of the darker image where you want the detail to be seen. If you do too much, paint on with black and the top image will be put back, so to speak. Very flexible technique and can be done in PS6. This can be done with multiple digital exposures, multiple versions from a RAW file, or multiple scans of one film or more than one film. This alone makes the Zone System obsolete!