St. Barts in Manhattan

[vvcarpio]

Thanks a lot, umdaman1. Those are very nice compliments.

I take 9 or more shots -- it depends on the contrast of the scene. If, for example, the contrast is heavy (noon sunlight casting dark shadows) I might take more so no area in the resulting HDR image loses detail by ending up completely black (underside of roof awnings, for example) or completely white (brightly-lit office windows, for example).

For actually generating the HDR image, however, I don't use all 9 -- I just pick 5. Adding too many pictures loses sharpness, in my experience, as there's bound to be some roll, pitch, and yaw between shots even on a sturdy tripod because I touch the camera to make shutter speed adjustments.

In theory, however, you might only need 3 shots -- one underexposed (about -2ev), one overexposed (about +2ev), and one properly exposed (0ev). So I may be overdoing it.

In my defense, however, people and trucks move into my New York City scenes all the time so by having many shots to choose from, I can pick the ones that would degrade the resulting HDR image the least. I don't mind taxicabs because their yellow streaks add a New York touch to my city landscapes.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

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