Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been trying to learn HDR for the past 6 months using mainly online tutorials. This is the first book I have purchased or read on the subject. Without going into too much scientific detail the author gives a great understanding on what HDR is all about. He gives great background info on why HDR is needed, what causes noise in digital photos and a lot of information you might or might not want before he ever gets into the how-to-do part of HDR. He also compares the different programs available for HDR processing and the strengths and weakness of each program. Once he gets into the actual HDR part, he gives you pretty much all the information you might need to produce great HDR photos. He shows examples and explains how to get both 'realistic' and 'artistic' photos. He also shows what kind of problems you might incur with different types of scenes and how to approach and correct the problems you might encounter. He also shows how to do HDR-type processing from single images(although he says it won't get you the same 'true' HDR results. He covers many areas in which you can use HDR, including interior home photography, or, color gels, and a new technique he developed called 'flash merging', which is shooting multiple images using your flash and making an HDR photo from that. I personally think learning this new 'flash merging' technique is worth the price of the book alone. There are also some samples from great HDR photographers (but those are mainly for inspiration on what can be done, and don't offer much in the way of how-to's). If you are new to HDR and want to learn how its done, from analyzing scenes before your first image is ever captured in the camera, all the way through to final image, of if you have been doing it for a while and want to learn how to approach problem areas that are keeping your HDR photos from looking like the pros (like noise in your clouds and dark areas) then this book would be a great investment....and it's at a great price. ByronT....Tulsa, Ok