HDR photography: the good, the bad, definitely not ugly!

Below are a couple of shots in raw with my Nikon D80. The first pic I adjusted the curves and levels in photoshop CS3. The second shot is the same as the first only bracketed by 0.7 to 1.3.
I took a total of 6 shots and used photoshop CS3 HDR format to bring all photos together. I then adjusted the curves to what I thought looked good. After saving my 32 bit file to a 16 bit tiff, I then brought it down to an 8 bit jpeg and what you see is what you get.
I purposely did not "edit" the images much simply because I wanted to see what kind of results I would get by just doing the basics.....simply amazing in my book!!!! HDR is the way to go if you have the time and equipment to bracket properly.

Before



After


As you can see, I did not even clean up the artifacts but the HDR is an amazingly better picture.
while most of us chasers chase run and gun style which would make HDR photography very difficult, there are a few who actually take the time to set up equipment and such. For those that do, HDR is a "new" option that will take storm photography to the next level.
If you have not tried out this new style of photography.....give it a chance.... I think you will love it, Iknow I do and I plan on doing it more and more.

Severe Weather and HDR?

As seen in the radar grab from my StormLab, the SPC/NWS has issued tornado watches for most of the state of Florida. Most of this convection looks elevated in nature but there could be a few tornadoes embedded with in the line. If you live in these area please pay attention to the weather today.

Also of real concern is the heavy snow and severe winter weather in the North today. Seen below is a radar grab from Grand Rapids MI which you can clearly see the snow starting.

This area is also an area to keep an eye on as they could see up to a feet of snow or even more in some places.

I have not really shot any pics as of late because I just have not had the time. I am going to try to get out this week and shoot some and may even try a little HDR stuff. I have been reading up on this "new" type of photography and I am really getting into it. I say "new" but HDR is really not new, I remember hearing of HDR a few years back but it seems that it is just now making it into the main stream photography world.....should be exciting to see what kind of images we can make. I will try to post a few links and maybe even a few pics with my next post regarding HDR photography....stay tuned.