I had a chance to shoot some AutoHDR’s with the Sony a57 over the past few weeks and figured I would put them all in one article for you HDR Photography Fans!! If your not familiar with HDR photography, basically it’s the blending of multiple exposure’s when the scene’s dynamic range is to great for the camera to capture with one exposure. It stands for High Dynamic Range in case you were wondering, and until recently all the work was done manually using the computer and software. Sony decided to put the HDR feature in their cameras though and it’s called AutoHDR.
When using AutoHDR on the Sony A57 you will can adjust the EV amount from a level of 1EV to 6EV, with 6EV being the most dynamic range and 1EV for a seen with lesser dynamic range. For a tip, try starting off at around 3ev and see what you get. If your image looks really flat, try lowering the EV’s. If your image looks blow out in places or dark in areas, try 6EV!!
Sony A57 and AutoHDR Sample Photos
Check out this shot of the indoor pool at the Hotel we stayed at the other day. It’s really dark, but the outside is fairly bright making it a high dynamic range scene. I hit the Fn button and enable the AutoHDR feature while using Aperture priority mode.
Here is the regular exposure:
Here is the AutoHDR photo with using a setting of 6EV’s on the Sony A57. Notice how much more shadow information is included while still maintaining the highlights in the pool!
Here is a shot of my Brothers awesome Screaming Eagle edition Harley Fat-Boy!! He came up for Mothers day and I had to take a pic for him. This first shot is the regular non Autohdr version which looks pretty good and he would probubly be happy with the photo.
But check out the AutoHDR !!
This next photo is of an excavator sleeping for the evening. The 1st image is the Normal exposure fallowed by the AutoHDR and 100% Crops.
AutoHDR Version:
Here is one more AutoHDR that the a57 decided to do on it’s own while using the New Superior Intelligent Auto Mode. The camera just switched to AutoHDR mode automatically and told me to prepare for a burst of 3 shots. Here is the resulting image which is leaps and bounds better than the standard exposure in my opinion. I deleted the standard exposure by accident otherwise I would have posted it.
Closing Remarks:
As with all the newer Sony Alpha cameras the AutoHDR feature is a great tool, and it keeps getting better with each new camera that comes out. Sony must be refining the algorithms for which it uses to processes the AutoHDR photos in my opinion. In any event, be sure to try out this feature next chance you get as I bet you will be impressed with the results 😉
For more info on setting up the camera for HDR Photography, check out this video tutorial I put together using the Sony Nex-7. It’s the same procedure pretty much with the A57 but the menus are a tad different. (Click Here)
Intro to HDR Photography – An In Depth Video Tutorial that breaks down HDR Photography for the Beginner!!
Jay
