Best Way of Taking HDRs without Auto-Bracketing Feature

[Ben1989]

Hi everyone,

I have a Nikon D3200 which unfortunately doesn't have an auto-bracketing feature. I'm wanting some advice on how to get the best HDR photos without this?

I have a tripod and a remote if that helps anyone with their advice.

Many thanks, Ben

 

[Ysarex]

Just shoot 1 raw file and expose to place the diffuse highlight at sensor threshold. In all but the most extreme cases you should be able to process the photo from that single NEF.

Joe

 

[KmH]

As long as it's not windy and making things move you can manually bracket 3 to 5 HDR exposures in 5 to 7 seconds.

 

[480sparky]

As with all things photographic, there is no one, single 'best 'way. It all depends on what you're looking at and how you desire the results to look.

 

[Ben1989]

I appreciate the feedback everyone. I'm out around my city Liverpool tomorrow where I hope to get some indoor shots of the cathedral but also outside on the pierhead. I just pray I don't know the camera too much by manually changing eV settings

 

[Derrel]

Just shoot 1 raw file and expose to place the diffuse highlight at sensor threshold. In all but the most extreme cases you should be able to process the photo from that single NEF.

Joe

Ben, this web page will show you how to accomplish this with your D3200. It has instructions, along with a pretty good HDR-type result photo!

Missing the "bracketing" option in 3200 | Nikon D3200 Users | Flickr

 

[480sparky]

My method is simple. Set the camera up on a tripod and use a spot meter to meter the shadows and the highlights. That tells me now many images to take. For instance, if I have 9 stops of dynamic range, I take 9 images.

 

[Alexr25]

My method is simple. Set the camera up on a tripod and use a spot meter to meter the shadows and the highlights. That tells me now many images to take. For instance, if I have 9 stops of dynamic range, I take 9 images.

If the scene has a 9 stop dynamic range why do you need to take 9 images? Doesn't your camera have any dynamic range at all?
I would have thought that any modern cameras could capture that in a single exposure.

 

[Derrel]

The D3200 can handle about 13.2 stops in one RAW frame...

 

[480sparky]

My method is simple. Set the camera up on a tripod and use a spot meter to meter the shadows and the highlights. That tells me now many images to take. For instance, if I have 9 stops of dynamic range, I take 9 images.

If the scene has a 9 stop dynamic range why do you need to take 9 images? Doesn't your camera have any dynamic range at all?
I would have thought that any modern cameras could capture that in a single exposure.

To get the most detail in every stop.

 

[Ben1989]

From my (.limited) research everyone is saying that true HDR will not be achieved by taking one RAW image...

 

[480sparky]

From my (.limited) research everyone is saying that true HDR will not be achieved by taking one RAW image...

Given there's no 'official' definition of HDR, one could consider a ham & cheese sandwich HDR.

 

[Ysarex]

From my (.limited) research everyone is saying that true HDR will not be achieved by taking one RAW image...

Good luck coming up with a consensus definition for "true" HDR. The wiki definition: "High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) is a high dynamic range (HDR) technique used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques." focuses on the goal and not the methodology for achieving the goal. Back when HDR imaging became a commercial product the typical digital camera was equipped with an 8 or 10 bit ADC. A single raw file back then captured less total tonal range and the multiple exposure method was the best solution. Look what happens when you increase the bit depth of the camera's ADC:

8 bit = 256 discreet tonal levels
10 bit = 1024 discreet tonal levels
12 bit = 4096 discreet tonal levels
14 bit = 16384 discreet tonal levels

The increase is exponential. Your camera is equipped with a 12 bit ADC. So do you really need to go the multiple exposure route to capture a high contrast scene. Here's an example using a camera with a 12 bit ADC like yours but with a much smaller sensor and so less capable overall than your camera.

That's the JPEG file the camera created. It fits the bill for a troublesome high contrast scene. It's backlit with the sun behind the scene. The JPEG from the camera looks badly underexposed. But any additional exposure will begin to clip the diffuse highlights in the raw file. The highlights in the JPEG are already starting to clip with a blown blue channel. Shooting a camera JPEG with lighting contrast like this would require a compromise that would give up the highlights in order to better expose the midtones. That would leave you with a blown white sky which would suck.

So HDR then: Get out your tripod. You've got trouble if the scene has movement. Capture your bracket set and then to work you go with your HDR software.

Or, don't bother with the tripod. Don't worry about movement. Make sure you get an exposure that places the diffuse highlights at the sensor threshold -- just one click and process a 12 bit raw file:

Your camera is more capable than the camera used here.

There are a lot of caveats: Of course the lighting contrast can go higher and the multiple exposure method becomes the only solution. In my experience that's pretty rare now. I have HDR software that I used to use that I no longer use. My newest camera has a 14 bit ADC. There's a learning curve for sure in being able to process the raw file successfully, but there's a learning curve for the HDR software as well.

So bottom line, before you go through the whole tripod, multiple exposure, special software route are you sure you really need that. You might, but odds are you don't.

Joe

 

[KmH]

ADC = Analog-to-Digital Converter.

 

[480sparky]

.........Look what happens when you increase the bit depth of the camera's ADC:

8 bit = 256 discreet tonal levels
10 bit = 1024 discreet tonal levels
12 bit = 4096 discreet tonal levels
14 bit = 16384 discreet tonal levels
..................

But how does this affect the ability to capture a wide dynamic range?