Until a camera comes along that is capable of  recording naturally occurring dynamic range as our eyes see it, photography is a compromise or at best a technical challenge.

HDR, or Hight Dynamic Range images have become a cliche of contrast, wild tone and unrealistic representations of what we were seeing. Having said that, there are some who manage to create some excellent images using the available tools.

My goal is to create images with realistic contrast and dynamic range, but using a manual blending method rather than expecting a software algorithm to make the perfect choices for me. In Blending Case Study 1, we took a very simple example of an image where the transition between the sky and the foreground was a straight line, a simple gradient across the two layers created the desired effect.

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