Shooting Challenge: HDR Gallery Part 2

So here are my submissions! I couldn't choose between the two so I'm sending them both. Shot on a Sony a-200 with 18-70mm stock lens @ ISO 200. Had to get up very early to catch the beautiful Florida sunrise, but totally worth it! -Thomas Pettigrew

I shot this at a park in my hometown of Dacula, GA while visiting my mother this week. Nikon D200 Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8 f16, ISO 100 9 exposures one stop apart from 1/320-0.8 seconds exposures combined using Photomatix Pro Image colors and grain tweaked in Adobe CS4 using AlienSkin Exposure Vignette added in Adobe Photoshop CS4 using AlienSkin Bokeh I shot this at a park in my hometown of Dacula, GA while visiting my mother this week. -Josh Geyer

This is my '98 Jeep Wrangler and there isn't a place on earth it cant go. Shot on Canon EOS 10D Lens: 28-105@30mm ISO: 100 f/5.6 Exposures: -2,0,+2 Blended and edited in Photomatix -Nathan Ward

Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-55mm @ 17mm, f/10 and ISO 200 I was driving towards home, and I drove by this station. I decidet that it was to make an HDR out of it, so I searched for a place to park. Then I walked to the station and took an handfull of HDR´s. -Oddgeir Auklend

Canon 50D EF 17-40mm f/4 WB: Auto ISO: 100 3 Shot Auto-Bracket at 2 stops This is three different shots put together in Photoshop CS4 and is tonemaped in Photomatix. During this challenge I discovered that New Orleans is made for HDR photography. In this shot I wanted to capture Jackson Square as the sun was setting. You can see that the HDR effect complements the scene. -Jonathan Bachman

Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: Nikkor 35mm Shot on tripod using 3 exposures at -2,0,+2 ISO: 0.1 I was walking in the park taking pictures of trees and I found this "tree house cabin" and an old water pump that just cached my eye... -Carlos Arrieta

It has been taken this afternoon with my Canon Rebel T1i (500D) with the focal length at 10mm. All five shots were taken at ISO 100 f:11 I used Manfrotto 190XPROB to ensure stability and to be able to take them very close to the ground level. Finally, all shots were put together using Photomatix on my MBP -Jessii Leduc

Camera: Nikon D5000 ISO: Lo.1 i belive, a very low setting i know that. Focal: 18mm Info: I got bored, looked out side and liked the lighting and brought out the tripod. i used a Circular Polarizer to get more of the refection, and composed the HDR in Photomatix, and used a bit of Paint.net to clear up the plate. -Garrett Goodrich and gizmodo reader/commenter gtuned

Canon 7D Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 ISO 100 f/4 First time trying out HDR, looked out the window and really liked the color of the sky. -Devin Martin

Camera- Pentax K100D Super SLR with the Pentax 50-200mm lens Subject is the side of an old VW truck at an all VW car show HDR processing with HDRtist took three photos- one stop underexposed, properly exposed, and a stop overexposed hand held for all three shots— used the auto-bracket shooting mode on the camera Shooting details for each photo- Metering mode was pattern ISO- 200 for all three shots underexposed- F/8 160mm focal length Exposure- 1/800th sec exposure compensation -1 step properly exposed- F/8 160mm focal length Exposure- 1/400th sec no exposure compensation overexposed- F/5.6 160mm focal length Exposure- 1/320th sec exposure compensation +1 step -Ben Hay

Spring Bridge 9 exposure 2/3rd stop incriments Nikon d300 - 28-80mm F/3.3-5.6G @f/22 iso200 Rendered in Photomatix Pro 3 This is an old rusty bridge over the Great Miami River in Troy Ohio where I live. I choose this as my shooting location because of how many items have such great detail in the scene. When I think of a great HDR shot I think of an awesome sky with something in the scene that has amazing texture. The rusty bridge and aged wood planks gave me the detail I wanted and the dark sky with the over saturated trees got me right where I wanted with color that pops. -James Smith

Pictures taken with Canon EOS Rebel T2i ISO 100 EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens Taken with aperture priority F 13 at 8 second exposure 18mm focal length Using a +2 to -2 bracketing HDR made with Photomatix Picture is of the stairway to the #7 train from Mets (shea) Stadium -John

Living in Manhattan Beach, CA I walk down and catch the sunset as often as I can each week and I'm excited to share. Here's a snapshop just after the sunset. - D5000 - ISO 100 - +/- 2EV - 1/15 sec - f/22 -Danny Grace

Nikon D3000 with 18-55 VR kit lens. Seven shots in total all 30 seconds at different Fstops. It is a picture taken in Down Town Disney in Orlando,FL somewhere around 11PM, Photomatix was used for the HDR part. -Eric Weise

Canon Eos 1000D with EFS 18-55mm Exposure: 1, 1/4 and 4 ISO: set to Auto and missed to write down Drive mode single shooting held the Cam down on the couch to keep it steady. Additionally I used a Philips Living Colors lamp to get the 3 colors in the picture. -Roman Kunz

Cannon Rebel XSi with stock lens, tripod and IR remote, ISO 100, f/4 I initially shot +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2 exposures, but it was a really windy day so I could only manage to get -2, 0 and 2 without having the clouds in the background move. So I chose those 3 exposures and shot using an IR remote and a tripod to ensure no shaking. After merging them in Photoshop CS3, I used Photomatrix to give it an HDR color tone. The shot itself was taken from the top floor of my fire escape of my dorm at U.C. Berkeley in California, around 6 PM. -Travis Parsons

This was taken in Mykonos, Greece which have some of the best sunsets in the world. As a photographer who loves to dabble with HDR, sunsets are a dream to shoot, especially in a local such as Greece. I used my Nikon D300 with a Nikon 80-200mm lens and a tri pod. This was made using 7 different exposures (+/-1) at ISO of 200, F 3.8 @ 24 mm. -Philip Dauria

Shot with a Nikon D200 with a 18-200mm lens at ISO 1250. Used 5 exposures to create this HDR. Shot at an insane asylum that was abandoned in the late 80's near Fort Meade, MD on April 23, 2010. -R Stevens

Nikon D3s, AF NIKKOR 24mm, HOYA CIR-PL Filter, Photoshop CS4, Photomatix Pro, Mac OS X seven expositions with different speeds, the central exposition, is F8 and S 1/800, the ISO is constant in 200. HDR assemble in Photoshop, and tonemapping done in Photomatix Pro. -Manuel Matamoros

Used my Canon PowerShot SX200 IS and took @ 80 ISO Out my parents' main bedroom window, down the street, a Mosque. Not the ideal setting, I know, but I tried anyway. In Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, the UAE. -Steyn DeKlerk

Camera model:NIKON D300 Focal length:300 mm Exposure:1/1000 at f/5.6 ISO speed:ISO 200 Photo was taken in Steinhatchee, FL while coming back from fishing in the Gulf, standing on the front of the boat. It was shot using a Nikon D300 camera with a Sigma 70-300/4.0-5.6 DG Macro lens. -Zach Manring

An HDR shot of 3 long exposures taken of a bridge support standing out of the water. Taken in the evening to get the long exposures; to get that misty effect on the water. Set at ISO 100 - f 5.6, with exposure brackets at two stops over and under to take the shots at 3.2 seconds, 13s econds and 30 seconds. Used a Canon 1000D/Rebel XS with a 75-300mm lens, at a focal length of 210 mm. Planted it on a tripod. -Bart Tieman

I work for a US Contractor in Kuwait providing photography support for the US Military, MWR and USO. I handheld the camera, opened the image in Camera RAW. Using camera raw I made 5 different exposures then imported those into Photomatix, made my adjustments and made further adjustments in PS CS4. Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II Software: Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix Pro 3 Lens: Canon EF L 24-105mm Focal Length: 24mm ISO: 1000 Aperture: f/16 -Kenneth D Aston Jr

Camera: Canon 40D Lens: Canon 18-135mm IS ISO: 100 3 bracketed exposures I shot this trying to capture some of the elements of San Francisco and I was able to include the steep roads and the cable cars with this shot. -Jamil Afza

Panasonic GF1, 7 Step 2/3 Bracket, Lake Como Italy -Chris Keating

Mission San Xavier del Bac (half restored) Pentax K-x (using "soft HDR" function) F11 1/160 ISO 200 -2,0,+2 -Mellanie Fuller

This is the butterfly house at the Detroit Zoo. I took this last Sunday morning (4/18/10). Equipment - Sony Alpha 380. 3.5-5.6 / 18-55 lens in manual focus. Settings: Shot 1 (normal exposure) - 1/100 s, f/9.0, ISO 100, 45mm focal length Shot 2 (+2.0 exposure) - 1/25 s, f/9.0, ISO 100, 45mm focal length Shot 3 (-2.0 exposure) - 1/400 s, f/9.0, ISO 100, 45mm focal length Technique - Took same shot with three different exposures using a tripod. "HDRed" them in Photomatix and did some tone mapping. Saved two different HDR images. The final pic uses the sky from one of the HDR images and the rest is from the second. I did this in Photoshop CS4. -Trip Dixon

Photo was taken with a Canon XSi using an EF-S 18-55mm lens and shot at ISO 200. I take the shot in an open field near some railroads track by my house. We had had some rain earlier in the afternoon that cleared out and left a sunset that made the sky look like it was on fire. -James E. Collier

Nikon D5000 AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm 200 ISO f/22 St. Petersburg Pier as taken from Demem's Landing -Matthew Clark

Took one shot and then in Photoshop I made 8 different exposures. (-4/-3/-2/-1/1/2/3/4). I then plugged them in to Photomatix to merge them and tonemaped. Technically the original was shot with my Nikon D5000 with Tamron 70-300mm Lens. Shot on Manual, f6.3 @ 1/1000 & ISO 200. -Angel Olavarria

Camera: Canon PowerShot S5IS On a Tripod. ISO-80 3 Pictures taken with AEB Bracketing -2..0..+2 Images rendered with QTPFSGUI Picture was taken on 4-22-10 in Lowell Washington just outside of the town of Everett at the Lowell Riverfront park. The River is the Snohomish. -Chris Nelson

Canon T1i 4/21/2010 EF-S 18-55mm IS f/11 1/320 ISO 100 -Justin Chen

Shot using a Nikon D40 with a kit 18-55mm lens at f8 and 1/13s. Image processed using qtpfsgui (I think I got all the letters there) and gimp. -Denis Lobanov

The attached shots are 3 Exposure HDR taken bracketed with a Canon 40D and a Tamron 17-50 F2.8, set to 17mm. The shots were processed in Photomatix and then cleaned up in Photoshop CS3. The image is of the creek in Negro Bill Canyon, just outside of Moab, UT. The canyon is a 2.5 mile hike, and ends at Morning Glory Natural Bridge, a 243 feet long natural rock span, and the sixth-longest natural rock span in the United States. I chose this particular image as it is my favorite of the images I took that weekend, but also because it highlights the abilities of HDR. The light in the canyon was very dark under the rock ledges and overhangs, and the sky was very bright. HDR allowed me to get a shot that kept everything balanced. Mantaining the contrast and light under the rocks, while not blowing out the sky. -Scott Ingram

Shot with an Olympus E-600, kit 14-42mm lens. This is my first attempt at HDR, so I didn't go overboard with the clown vomit (or at least tried not to). The monitor I used isn't reliable for color accuracy, so I aimed for the dark side when working with the settings. Overall a fun experience! -Patrick Spencer

Panasonic Lumix GH1 Kit 14-140 Lens ISO 100-250 Processed with Photomatix Light and Pixelmator I took this photo while at Walt Disney World's Epcot. The contrail in the center is from the mysterious X-37B launch - sadly, I missed the launch itself by about a minute. The camera was precariously balanced on a short iron fence just outside Morocco. - Joshua Lund

Taken on my Samsung L210 Point and shoot, edited in Photomatix Pro. A shot taken looking down the main pathway at my school. was a overcast day, but turned out good anyway. -Stephen Bank

Always wanted a shot like this of my apartment but could never get a balanced single exposure thanks to the large windows. First attempt at HDR, shot on a tripod with my Canon 400D at 17mm on the 17-85 IS USM EF-S lens, at f/8 and ISO 100. Six images shot and merged, varying the shutter speed to try and maintain the same depth of field. Used a photographer friend's post-processing setup: Photomatix Pro then touchup in Photoshop CS3 on a MacBook Pro. -Chris Saunders

Nikon D5000 with telephoto VR lens. Freshly made jello shots glistening as they chilled in the fridge. Watermelon and strawberry, yum. =) -Paloma Trygar

I was asked to take the end-of-year picture of a 5th grade class this week and I took the opportunity to create an HDR image for the contest. Added -1 and +1 exposure brackets with minor mid-tone contrast tweaks in CS4, blended in Photomatix and performed final edits using Photoshop CS4 and Nik Filters. Camera: Canon 40D Lens: Tamron f2.8 18-50 @ 19 mm ISO-400, f/5.0, 1/200 sec. 4/22/2010 @ 8:53am Used 6' step ladder for perspective No lighting/flashes -Chris Reilly

"Power lines" Taken with a Canon Rebel XTi -David Doty

The photo was shot with a Nikon D60, standard 18-55mm lens. I mixed 4 photos with f-stops between 1/125 -1/4 and had an ISO around 100. After a while of biking around looking for a good HDR shot, I was on my way to a friends house to call it a day when I saw this. It turned out to be my favorite that I had taken of the day. Montreal never disappoints. -Kane Hale

My shot was from a trip I took to an old abandoned mine today. This shot was in one of the processing areas. Since I have not learned how to use AEB yet, I simply set the camera up on a tripod and started shooting. Using the basic principles of HDR, I took three shots at varying shutter speeds to obtain the correctly exposed, over exposed and under exposed shots. After processing all my potential HDR shots, this one turned out the best. The mine was quite eerie with all the leftover stuff and creaking metal. It looked as if everyone grabbed what they could carry and walked out. Camera: Nikon D80 Lens: Sigma 18-200 Aperture: f 3.5 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 18mm Shutter Speeds: 10 sec, 2 sec, 1/2 sec HDR processed using Photomatix Pro -Taylor Coulson

I was driving home from college and saw this scene from another location, quickly I drove to this spot and got there just in time for the sun to be up still. I used a Canon Rebel XT with a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens. Focal Length: 19 F Number: 10.043 ISO 100 HDR was created using Photomatix. -Kevin Protack

Camera: Canon 7D Lens: EF 24 - 70mm 1:2.8 L USM ISO: 200 Focal Length: 48mm Exposure time: 2 sec Bracketing: +/- 2 I had no plans to shoot the Singapore Skyline. I had gone out to shoot the fireworks opening of the Double Helix Bridge in Singapore that faces East. I looked West and saw a beautiful sunset over Downtown Singapore and immediately recognized it as an opportunity for an HDR image... -Omar Ihsan

Handheld shot of a church in Jamaica Plain, MA. Bracketed at -2,0,2 Canon 7D 18-135 kit lens Shot at 18 mm, ISO 100, f7 -Joel Dougless

In honor of Earth Day, here is Mother Nature reclaiming some urban space. This HDR was taken with a Nikon D40. I took three shots, one at -2 EV, one at 0EV and one at +2EV and then combined them in Photoshop. I used a Sigma ultra wide angle lens at 10mm. I believe the ISO was 200. Thanks. -Peter Berg

Snagged a landscape at sunset using a tripod, took the shot of a valley near my house. Used Photoshop CS4 to merge to HDR and do the tweaking. Canon EOS Rebel XS - f/22 - ISO 100 - 28-135@30mm - 1/5s + 1/200s + 1.3s -Modest Mouse

I'm using a Canon 40D body, and for this particular shot I used the Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM lens , shot at 120mm @ F 13, ISO 100. I used the free software HUGIN to stitch my images together, and I used Photomatix Pro to render my HDR's before assembling them. I initially shot 12 images, which created 4 hdr's, and stitched those into the final image. The end result is an image of 9858 x 2408 pixels. -Stephen J. Nesbit

Nikon D80 10.5mm fisheye f/ 4.0 4 exposures Raw processed in Lightroom and then HDR created with Photomatix Photo is of a cave a couple miles out of town I was out there hiking around a couple days before this weeks contest was up and though it would make a good subject for this weeks challenge. -Blake McCord

Nikon D90, 18-105mm lens, ISO 400. Shot on the roof of a parking garage in New Haven CT. -Daniel Guiditta

I took this while biking across town in Pisa, Italy on the 24th. The photo is made with 2 exposures using the 3GS, and HDR-merged using "Pro HDR" right on the phone. 3rd party iPhone apps doesn't write EXIF to the photos, but if I have to guess, ISO is probably around 80, 1/60th second, and F2.8, 3.85mm... etc. -Mike Pan

Camera: Nikon D5000 Lens: 18-55mm Nikon Film speed: ISO 200 Aperture: f / 5.0 Shutter: 1/500th I took this as my wife and I got off the Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall Terminal in NYC. There was a dance team outside with a huge crowd, so I started taking pics. I had just started playing around with HDR when I took this photo, so this was one of my first attempts. I used a single RAW image to build a "pseudo-HDR" image in Photomatix. -John Hegele

Equipment: Panasonic LX3 + Tankara tripod, '09 17" MBP (2.93 Ghz). Camera was in manual mode and I set the aperture to 2.0, iso 80 and save as RAW. The dark shot was taken at shutter speed 1/10, the midtones at .4 and the highlights at 2 seconds. This was around 9 pm Saturday night outside a nearby Japanese hot-spring. HDR made with HDRtist, cropping, contrast and color adjusted in Funtastic Photos. -Sam Rowlands

I took the family to Adventureland (on Long Island) and saw the chance to grab the Sunset behind the Ferris Wheel. This was shot with my FujiFilm FinePix HD2000 at about 5:30 last night. I used bracketing mode set to -1, 0, +1 Ev A little help from Photoshop - and vivid colors surround the Sunlight wheel. -John Remmler

I took this photograph in Rivaux in Yorkshire, England. The bridge was built by monks in about 1300AD. I also photographed the Abbey as well. I used a Nikon D300 with 5 stops, 1 apart at 6 frames per second handheld. Lens was a Nikon 18-200mm VR at 18mm. Because it was dark I shot at F/6.3, ISO 250. It was a difficult shot as I was shooting into the setting sun. -Byron Cooke-Tonnesen

This was shot using a Canon 400D with kit lens using AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing) (-2,0,+2). Camera Model Name Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL Shooting Date/Time 4/25/2010 4:46:55 PM (UAE Time, GMT +04:00) Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/200 Av (Aperture Value) 10 ISO Speed 100 -Mustafa Khan

Au-Ni Tailings at Sunset This was shot using a Canon Rebel XSi with the EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS. Exposure was 1 sec @ f/22 100 ISO using a tripod, with remote. Two sec delay and mirror lockup enabled. Software LIghtroom and Photomatix. There were a series of tailings ponds from an abandoned gold/nickel mine. Two shots were taken on the berm between the uppermost and the middle pond. I did a another, wider field and more exposure shots but they did not process nicely. Surprisingly, this two exposure worked out nicely. -Terry McIntosh

Camera: Canon 1Dmk4 : Raw, AWB, AF (front-left tree), Auto mode, One-shot Focus, Low speed multipictures, bracketing (Lumi) *7, from -3 to +3 Lens: Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 II USM w/ Hoya Pro1D clear filter HDR Software: Creaceed Hydra 2.1.3 (Aperture Plug-in version) in Perception mode Import and post-process software: Apple Aperture 3 Location: Magog, Québec, Canada (Lac Memphrémagog) Taken: April 24th, 2010 - Processed April 25th Camera on the deck floor -Michel Donais

For this shot, I used my Canon Rebel XSi with the 18-55 kit lens. Bracketed two stops in either direction at ISO 1600. Lit using only a small table lamp. The photo is of the inside of a "AN/APS-31A" military aircraft radar control panel. I bought this at a surplus sale last summer, and until about an hour ago, I didn't know what it was. According to the TM-11-487C-1 Military Standardization Handbook, it looks like this equipment was in service in the mid-60s. -David Schrubbe

3 exposures taken with a Nikon D5000 using a 35mm f/1.8 lens. Processed with Dynamic Photo HDR, using the 'Eye Catching' setting. Straightened with Photoshop. -Matthew Hill

HDR Infrared shot taken using a Nikon D70s and 18-200 f3.5/5.6 VRII and Hoya R72 filter. 3 Handheld JPG exposures at 1/25,1/60,1/10 and 800 ISO using camera autofocus and metering (+1 compensation). Tonemapped in Photomatix at mild settings and then the Red and Blue channels were inverted in Photoshop to give the blue sky. Pictures taken at a Norwegian Power Switching yard. -Christopher Jones

This picture sums up my opinion of HDR. Golden turds. Nevertheless I thought I would try my hand at it. Using the proposed GIMP method and my Canon XS, I took 3 pictures at f/20 with a focal length of 24mm and an ISO of 100. I used exposures of 1/15, 1/4, and 1 second. Special thanks to my dogs for supplying the subject matter. -John Chapman

I took a series of exposures of this shack I found in the historic Strawberry Park here in Portsmouth, NH. This was taken with my Canon 40D and Sigma 10mm wide angle lens at ISO 100, and f/4.0 at various shutter speeds (1/800, 1/1500, and 1/200). Then some post editing was done to turn this series into the single HDR image you see. -Ian Mitchell

This Photo was taken at Montauk Point Lighthouse on long island. I discovered this area while taking a walk with my wife. Camera- Nikon D3000 Lens- Stock AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55MM VR lens ISO- 200 Shutter- Aperture Mode (1/250 sec) F-stop - 13 Focal length- 18mm -Anthony Saunders