Kevin Ho's HDR Guide for Beginners

I am in love with HDR....
Frankly speaking, HDRed photos get a real "punch" to them in terms of color and dynamic range.
Just to get things interesting, here are a few examples of what HDR images look like...

Do I hear "Wow"s?
hahaha....
Don't worry, you will learn how to make your very own HDR images soon enough.
That is the main reason I am writing anyway......to give beginners a kick start on making their 1st ever HDR image~!
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So what exactly is HDR?
HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range".
To make things simple, HDR lets you capture and display more details in a certain scenery that conventional photos are not able to.
Here is an example:

The shot on the left is a classic example of a back-lit scene. They are contrasty and they are hard to meter even with today's advanced technology. You will either get pitch black shadowy trees, or you will get over-blown highlights in the sky. On the right, you will see what HDR can do to this scene, keeping much of the details intact while producing a scene that is much closer to what we see in real life.
Whether it is an ultra-compact, super-zoom or DSLR you are using....you can't escape this problem of "limited dynamic range".
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So....HDR lets me capture more details in my photos....
But how do I do it?
Simple, here are the things you need:
1) Camera that can take multiple exposures (by bracketing or by manual adjustments of aperture & shutter speeds).
2) A tripod (your photos must be the same, without movements, or else the photos won't merge correctly in HDR and you will see ghosting/double images).
3) A contrasty scenery or subject (the higher the contrast, the better).
4) Photomatix or Photoshop CS2 (or newer).
I personally like photomatix's features more, so I'll be writing a step by step for the Photomatix only (although you can generate HDR images also with Photoshop CS2. Please refer to this link if you wish to try it out in CS2: http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html).
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Now we get down to business....
1st things 1st, you need your source photos.
Setup your camera on your tripod and set your camera to bracketing mode by increasing the EV compensation to either +-1EV or +-2EV.
Most modern day cameras have this bracketing feature included, so if you can't find it, you will have to go and read your camera's operating manual.

Here, I have captured 3 shots of a very contrasty sunset scene using the bracketing function of my EOS 40D. The 1st photo is 0EV, the 2nd is -2EV, and the 3rd is +2EV.
*NOTE*
It is always better if you can take more than 3 exposures for HDR. The concept of "more is better" applies here because it helps capture as much dynamic range as possible. I've personally tried up to 7 different exposures.
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After you have uploaded your photos into your PC, it is time to launch Photomatix (I am using ver3.0, older versions might have some of the options hiding in the drop down menus) and generate your HDR image.
Here is what needs to be done:
Step 1: Click "Generate HDR".

Step 2: Select the set of photos to HDR.

Step 3: Depending on the situation, you might want to align the source images differently or attempt to reduce ghosting where there is movement in the scene.

Step 4: Now you have a preview of your HDR image....but it doesn't look really good doesn't it? That's because you haven't done TONE MAPPING.

Step 5: Now here is the tough part....whether your HDR comes out natural and life like or whether it comes out like a piece of art depends heavily on how you adjust the sliders in this step. There is no standard way of doing it, so you will have to do a trial and error...

Once done, click on File --> Save as and save your work into jpeg form.
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And there you have it~!
Your very 1st HDRed image~!
It wouldn't hurt if you did a bit more post-processing with photoshop by doing a bit of curves, color saturation and sharpening.

Happy HDRing~!