Sony A7 III – Dynamic Range @ Bali

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I did a lot of HDR compositions while I was still using the Nikon D300 ten years ago. And with a good deal of luck and preparation, pictures like these were quite possible:

A HDR picture of Kumamoto Castle, created from a five bracket shot. This was taken just outside my hotel in Dec 2009. The five shots were also done hand-held, which explains some of the leaf movement you can spot on the left hand side of the picture.
The same image post-processed from the single 0EV RAW image. 1/100s, 0EV, f5, ISO200, 43mm.

HDR shots though are by their very nature not easy to compose, though some of the challenges of inevitable hand movement can be resolved through tripod use, and if not, setting the bracket shots on drive mode. Whether your picture looks unnatural or slightly fantasy-like – as in my sample above – also depends a lot on one’s skill in the software post-processing part of things, and that’s something I’ve never quite mastered over the couple of years I attempted HDR photography.

In a sense, with the large dynamic range possible in today’s full-frame cameras, I have less compulsion to bring out the heavy gear (i.e. tripods LOL) and carefully set-up a bracket shot just to create HDR-like shots like these. With careful adjustments in Photoshop to pictures taken with wide lighting range, it’s still possible to get near-HDR-like pictures. Here are four of the actual vs post-processed pictures taken during the sunrise @ Mt. Agung photoshoot.

Sample #1: 6:55AM, 1/1000s, -1.7EV, f7.1, ISO100, 24mm. Adjustments were +0.88EV, Contrast +8, Highlights -100, Shadows +100, Whites +61, Tint +6, Saturation +10, Clarity +5, Dehaze +15:

Sample #2: 7:00AM, 1/800s, -3EV, f7.1, ISO100, 24mm. Adjustments were -0.10EV, Contrast +37, Highlights -100, Shadows +99, Whites +43, Tint +6, Vibrance +11, Saturation +6, Clarity +12, Dehaze +14:

Sample #3: 7:06AM, 1/640s, 0EV, f7.1, ISO100, 56mm. Adjustments were Highlights -100, Shadows +36, Tint +6, Saturation +13, Clarity +13, Dehaze +25:

Sample #4, my personal favorite for the morning: 7:17AM, 1/1250s, 0EV, f7.1, ISO100, 53mm. Adjustments were Highlights -100, Shadows +65, Whites +7, Tint +6, Vibrance +7, Saturation +11, Clarity +16, Dehaze +13: