Where to expose

[lensfreak]

Hi,

Being new to HDR, I have a question.

If I am looking at a landscape style HDR, where should I get my first baseline exposure?

I use -2 0 +2 brackets but should I be getting the 0 exposure on the clouds or the land?


Den

[sas8888]

The 0 exposure will be the middle of the light the -2 will be the lightest part of the photo or usually in your landscape would be the clouds the +2 would be some part of the landscape that is dark. Remember that HDR has to do with High Dynamic Range so your base line 0 is going to be the middle of the exposure range of the situation. If you are using -2 0 +2 sometimes you might want to do a 5 exposure in 1 stop so you get -2 -1 0 +1 +2 it all depends on the situation.

[lensfreak]

i understand where 0 comes into play, but if you expose for sky as opposed to land the resulting settings will differ which in turn will cause the brackets to expose at different levels
For a landscape, where should I start to intial exposure, on the sky or land?

[kirkt]

You should use spot metering on your camera and meter a few parts of your scene, the ones that represent the extremes (highlight, shadow) that you are aiming to capture with detail. This metering process will establish the exposure "bookends" for the range you need to capture. This is more informative and accurate than assuming some average, overall brightness (i.e., average, evaluative metering) and assuming that +/-2 will get you the exposures you need.

That being said, most landscape images do not require HDR, or, at most only require one overall exposure and one more for highlights. But, metering the lights and darks with the spot meter will inform your exposure choice more accurately than assuming "average" +/- 2EV.

kirk