On Saturday May 8th, I had the pleasure if visiting Angel Island State Park in Northern California’s San Francisco Bay. The last time I was on the Island was 25 years ago and I had forgotten what a wonderful place it is to visit.
For the first time in a long time I was overwhelmed at the options to photograph. However when I came across the dilapidated building at Fort McDowell on the east site of the island, I decided to capture it’s essence through HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography.
Once I decided on a subject I placed my camera on a tripod (I can’t express enough the importance of a tripod when shooting HDR photos). I then set my camera to aperture priority and then set my aperture to f/16. I then set my focus point 2/3rds into the scene to gain the best possible depth of focus.
Then using exposure compensation I took my first exposure at -2EV (to capture highlight detail), a second at 0EV (to get an overall exposure), and a final exposure at +2EV (to capture shadow detail).
In extreme lighting conditions I have been known to take 5 exposures for this technique -2EV, -1EV, 0EV, +1EV, and +2EV.
Below are the combined images using the HDR technique, along with the original images located along the top.
Being me I couldn’t just leave well enough alone, so had to play and create an extreme version of the above image. This second version has a great deal more grunge and texture. Is it too much? I will let you all decide which one is the most popular. Please enjoy and let me know which image you like best.
