Exactly how does a group of bracketed photos make an HDR image?
I was showing my boss the images in my camera that go together to form one of my HDR images, and I thought it was an interesting visual exercise that helps show the progression to the final image. One other point, I do not do any adjustments on the bracketed images before they hit the HDR software (contrast, brightness, color saturation are all untouched). That is also the case in the images below. Only the final image has any post processing work done on it.
Over exposed 1 stop — shows the details in the shadows
Exposed properly (the same as any point and shoot camera would do)
Under exposed 1 stop — shows the details in the highlights
Final HDR image — Bringing together the highlight details, the shadow details and combing them with the standard exposed image using HDR software.
Wow, what a difference!