Note: There is an enrollment limit for this course and registration is required.

HDR Imaging: Capturing All the Light will show you when to use the HDR technique and how to capture and create stunning HDR photographs. This two-day class will begin early Saturday afternoon with instruction and field work in Old Towne Alexandria, VA, and finish on Sunday afternoon with classroom instruction in Sterling Va. on combining a sequence of images taken at different exposures to create HDR images that are realistic or have that “HDR look” depending on your vision for the photograph.


What do you do when you are staring at a beautiful vista but you can’t capture the foreground without blowing out the sky or the sky without the foreground going black? The answer is take a sequence of images at different exposures and combine them into a HDR image. The range of light in that vista can be as high as 100,000 to 1 or 17 stops of light. Even the latest cameras from Canon, Nikon, and other camera manufacturers can’t capture more than nine or ten stops of light. Using the high dynamic range or HDR imaging technique, you can capture and represent the full dynamic range of light found in a scene with high perceptual accuracy.

We will begin Saturday in downtown historic Alexandria with instructions on how to take a sequence of images that can be processed into a HDR image. After that introduction, we will take a walking tour of Alexandria to practice what you just learned. On Sunday, we will meet in a classroom for instructions on how to process a sequence of exposures into a HDR image and practice processing our images. During the two days, we will cover the following:

•    What is a high dynamic range or HDR image;
•    What are the differences between a HDR, blended exposure, and layered exposure image;
•    When should you use HDR;
•    How to capture HDR images, including how to set the camera and determine the exposure sequence;
•    What software is available for processing HDR images;
•    How to process a sequence of exposures into a HDR image, including how to create a 32-bit HDR image and tone-map the image; and
•    How to finish your images.

The HDR technique provides a means for capturing the full range of light in a scene in a realistic or hyper-realistic way, depending on your artistic vision and create stunning images. So, join us to learn how to create these images and impress your family and friends!