HDR - High Dynamic Range - Photography involves a bit more work than just aiming and pressing the shutter button. For the uninitiated, HDR photography is the technique of taking multiple photos of a subject with different exposures (allowing different amounts of light onto the camera’s sensor), then blending those separate exposures with a computer to get one photo with a much higher range of definition in light and shadow than is possible with a single photo. A camera can’t see as wide a range of light at once as the human eye - so, if done realistically, these blended exposures can get photography closer to what the eye sees. In effect, you’re making areas of the photo that would otherwise be under or over exposed look correct. You can also go really nuts and make very unreal looking images, but I’ve gone for realism.

It can be a little tricky - significant moving objects tend to fluster the HDR blending software, and a tripod is pretty much essential, since each exposure must be from an identical angle and position for the technique to work.

Here are seven HDR photos I’ve taken in downtown Fort Worth. All were taken with my Canon PowerShot G9, and all are the result of three exposures blended in a piece of software called Photomatix Pro. Click on each for a bigger view.