Pentax K100D and HDR

[airconvent]

I was curious about night86mare's photos that were labelled "HDR". Did a search and it revealed HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. From what I can see, you take 3 shots of high contrast images (i.e. target has very bright and very dark areas). Some will reveal the dark areas but over-expose the light areas and vice versa. Seems this software will merge the light areas so the whole image looks correctly lit.
Here are examples :

http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html

My question is is as simple as selecting 3 shots and the software will auto merge them or we need to select the area and do some manual adjustment?

For my K100D's case, do achieve this by using bracketing or do I have to manually set extreme settings to get the desired images for merging? Can I use Autopict or P mode plus autobracketing?

Also, I assume this function is not found in PS Elements 5.0 ?

cheers

[night86mare]

ps elements, not sure
but ps cs2's hdr function sucks bigtime

basically what hdr does is expand dynamic range
this is digital's fault, i find that when using my toy camera (vivitar wide and slim) on film, the dynamic range is superb
compared to what we get in k100d
and across every dslr, i guess, save maybe the fuji dslrs with their new-fangled cool sensor

in short, you have scenes where you can capture the details of say, person x's face
but you cannot capture the sky behind him, will be blown out
this is very possible when the guy is backlit

in which case you can either flash (which sometimes renders unnatural results) or hdr
but that's a bad example, hdr usually makes people look weird if you don't do it properly

no, you can't just select three shots, there is the smart and "save shutter count" way which is to
spot meter and guess your way with regards to dynamic range in scene
firstly you should ensure that the scene requires a hdr process, if not waste time and really feel stupid when you get something which looks like original pic without hdr
or, do what i do, the lazyman's way
just -3.0 to +3.0, need tripod, and manual mode, so you'd have 7 pictures most of the time (jpg), each with 1 stop in between
if you like you can do 1./2 stop in between, also works, the more the merrier, but whether it is necessary, is another thing

ANOTHER way, which is not as effective, but works for scenes with not so much dynamic range
is to just use the raw file
program like photomatix will do this automatically for you, which is why i like it

get photomatix! can pm me with regards to this
hope you understand what i typed there

[airconvent]

thanks night86mare.
Your advice is good! I am still trying very slowly to learn how to use PS Elements but keep on getting distracted. Don't think I will be buying photomatix so soon...maybe when you come back !

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by airconvent thanks night86mare. Your advice is good! I am still trying very slowly to learn how to use PS Elements but keep on getting distracted. Don't think I will be buying photomatix so soon...maybe when you come back !

you've got pm!