I know that alot of people claim that an HDR (high-dynamic-range) image cannot be created from a single RAW shot. As I have no previous knowledge or experience of creating HDR images, I don’t know all the intricacies that are a part of the process. I have however seen some images that look amazing, which were created from a single RAW file. Thus I decided to attempt it as well, as I don’t have a good tripod yet, which is necessary to get multiple shots with different exposures. My first attempt is of an escalator in the Holborn Underground station. This is my first attempt, so it’s still a bit basic, but I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I used Photoshop with the RAW plugin for importing RAW files. I also adjusted the saturation, levels and curves after creating the HDR.

On a side note: Some people do seem to get stuck on doing HDR images from single RAW files, which becomes annoying after a while, as the images tend to look over-bright and quite often have washed out colours, which can be a problem, as the single RAW file may be unable to capture the high colour range that multiple shots manage to record. So I would advise to only use the “single RAW file HDR” occasionally – it is after all an artificial representation and often doesn’t come close to real life.

Category: General Photography
Tags: HDR, RAW