what is this HDR you talk about

Some people have asked questions about what gear I use and how I get the end result in my photos. What is this HDR that I refer to when I mention my photos

So let me give a bit of an overview of what my tools and software used for many of my photos.

First off, I am currently shooting with a Sony A6500 Mirrorless camera. It is great and not to expensive camera (there is a model A6000 which I was using and is a lot cheaper and a good option for starting out quick warning no matter what the camera cost the real expense comes when you start buying extra lenses trust me).

What do I like about the A6500/6000? The weight. It's pretty light compared to my previous Pentax DSLR I had, so very easy to carry around with me. Anywhere I go I take it with me.I have come to find it does everything my old DSLR did and more in fact.

Now as for Software I use.

Adobe Lightroom

This is a software I use to import the photos onto the computer, organize them, add tags and other information so I can easily find photos again when needed. If I have to do some light editing for some photos this is all I need as its a fairly powerful tool on its own.

Adobe Photoshop

This is a more powerful editing tool that can do a lot more editing. In fact, I would guess I probably use less than 20% of its capabilities, well I probably use on any one photo a lot less than that to be honest. There are so many tools available in Photoshop that I have yet to learn but I know the tools I use often quite well now after a lot of trial and error learning which is pretty much my style with photography. I do more than enough reading in my day job to read tutorials in my free time.

Both of those are paid tools under Adobe Creative Cloud. I currently pay a monthly subscription of around $10 a month for the both of them which I feel is quite reasonable.

Google Nik tools

In addition, I sometimes use the Google Nik addons which are now free. Mainly, I just use Nik Silver Efex Pro for some black and white photos and occasionally use some of the other tools. The program itself used to cost $150 but good news, for anyone wanting to try it, it is now free. the bad news recently it was announced it would no longer be supported

Photomatix Pro

Now for those who were wondering about HDR and what it is? Photomatix is the tool I primarily use for HDR but first what is HDR?

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and is a process where you take a series of photos at different exposures and blend them together so you can get good detail in areas that would otherwise be to exposed/bright or to underexposed/dark.

Not sure how well I explained this so maybe a few photos will explain it better.

When I am out taking photos for HDR I use an Auto Bracket feature that takes 3 Photos one at Normal Exposure

One Over Exposed

and one Under Exposed

This is where using the Photomatix Pro tool comes in to play. It merges the photos into one. There is a HDR merge tool built into Lightroom and also now that google is free, that also includes a tool called HDR Efex Pro that will do this as well.

The next photo is the end result Photomatix.

Now this is just a quick example so I quickly shot the photos for this last night and I do admit I did not line up the original photos well but that also gives me the options to crop the photo as I wish

I then did some adjustments in Lightroom and photoshop, mainly Contrast, exposure, and a little sharpening to give the end result for this example

Now I am not really happy with this one to be honest and normally wouldnt share it but since I created the files for the example I am going to leave it on, but add a couple of better Images I have created with HDR below

Thanks for taking the time to read this, please feel free to ask any questions and resteem for others to see if you wish to

If your interested in my photos feel free to follow I check new Followers each day and follow back

and here are some more examples

Central Park Under Bethesda Terrace

The seated Ballerina at the Rockerfeller Centre

Another shot of the falls downtown here in Milford

Well this may well be my largest post ever I normally let the photos do the talking, thanks for those who read all the way to here I do now writing is not my strong point :)