Stupid question?

[Kanikula]

How long does a HDR image usualy take from start to finish?

 

[neogfx]

HDR?

 

[Kanikula]

High dynamic range imaging

 

[Don Simon]

I'm not sure I understand the question... do you mean how long does it take to create one? If so I'm not really sure you can put a figure on it; it involves work in both the initial exposure(s) and later in photoshop/other software, and how long all of this takes depends on many factors.

 

[rmh159]

In order to make an HDR image you just need a ton of exposures of the same scene. I think a minimum is 3 but most people tend to say 8-ish works best. So you basically take the spot meter and read the setting of the lightest and darkest parts of the scene and then take exposures at those two values and a few in between. Then load those images into software that'll combine them. I know Photoshop CS2 will merge them and there are others that I'm less familiar with but all that's to it is picking those specific files to load and the software does the rest.

Time wise... it only takes as long as it takes you to take a handful of different exposures of the same scene (a tripod is necessary) then load them into the PC and combine them. The entire process probably takes 10 minutes or so but I'd assume you won't have a PC right next to you when you're shooting.