Done right it's a fairly technical process. The following is just some basics to get the exposures and doesn't delve into merging the exposures or doing any of the post processing.
Put the camera in the spot metering and manual shooting mode. Set the lens aperture to f/8 to f/11
Meter the darkest and lighest parts of the scene to determine the total dynamic range of the scene.
You also have to evaluate if the dynamic range distributuion is fairly even, but that is more of a judgement thing than something you can measure. If the distribution is unbalanced, you would also need to unbalance your exposure brackets.
Yout T2i can capture a dynamic range of 11.5 EV. If the total dynamic range is 11.5 EV or less, it is not a good candidate for the HDR technique.
If the scene is 13 EV. You would then need to bracket at -1, 0, and +1 EV.
If the scene is between 13 EV and 15 EV you would bracket at -2, 0, +2 EV.
If the scene is more than 15 EV you would need to do more than 3 brackets.