HDR Tip 2 – Plan for HDR Reflections

Trey’s Note: this is part of a week-long HDR Tip session with Rick Sammon.  If you want to find out more, feel free to see the free HDR Tutorial or the more in-depth HDR Tutorial on Video.

I think all photographers like reflections, but HDR photographers doubly-like reflections!

If you’ve been taking photos for a long time, this new way of thinking about reflections may take some getting used to. If you are just doing a “regular’ photo, the reflections can sometimes come out flatly lit, over-exposed, or long-exposure-blurry. HDR can get around all that by combining the best bits of the various constituent images.

So, to that end, I try to set up the composition to ensure the interesting bits within the microcontrast are more than evident in the reflection. That is, there are bits of your photo that lend themselves to HDR more than others. Try your best to keep those bits front and center, and let all the other traditional compositional techniques (leading lines, etc) lead to those points of micro-contrast-tonal-mapping interest.

This is the amazing National Centre for the Performing Arts, or as I like to say, the ????? — I find that rolls of the tongue a bit easier.