This week I started looking into High Dynamic Range imaging. This is a technique that can be used by a photographer to make pictures look better by taking three pictures of the same motive, but with one image over exposed, one under exposed and one with normal exposure. The pictures are then combined, using software like Photomatix and Dynamic Photo-HDR.
Yesterday I was taking pictures at a birthday party in Ft Worth. The venue (The Petroleum Club) was a fairly dark room on the 39th floor, with big windows giving a panoramic view of downtown Ft Worth. So I decided to try some HDR pictures, and for a first attempt I think it turned out pretty good.
Here are the three original pictures, unedited:
In the first, darker image you can actually see some of the landscape outside the windows, while in the last, brighter image you can see the interior but not the outside, as that part is over exposed. Below is the result, without really any tweaking, of Photomatix:
You can see that the outside is still visible, as well as is the interior.
The pictures were all shot using a Nikon D90, in regular JPG (fine) mode. No flash was used, but I used a tripod.
If you like photography, and end up taking pictures of (for example) buildings against a bight sky or inside shots with windows or bright outside light, I would recommend looking at HDR as a method to improve your pictures.