extremely dumbed down way to do HDR.
get your 50D and your tripod out.
Turn the top wheel to Av mode and set your aperture (~8 is a good choice to get a sharp overall image, lower will give you a shorter depth of field).
-Go into menu
-then go to the setting that has AEB at the top (auto exposure bracketing)
-select that by either pushing in on the joystick or pressing the set button on in the middle of the wheel on the back of the camera.
-scroll wheel clockwise so you have a bar under -2, 0, +2. Now the camera is set to take 3 pictures instead of just one.
-see the button on the top that says "AF * DRIVE" (right in front of the top screen)? Press that and then use the thumb wheel to select the timer function with the subscripted 2 after it.
Compose your picture, click shutter, back away. The camera will fire off 3 shots. Normal, quick, long. Obviously don't touch the camera til all 3 shots are done.
Shooting in RAW will give you the best results, as those files contain a LOT more information than can be seen by any one image. For your first time, I'd shoot in RAW + JPEG just to make sure you can do something with the pictures.
Also, if you haven't already downloaded photomatix, I suggest you do so at
www.hdrsoft.com
Here is another good trick if you don't want to buy the software and wanna get rid of watermarks....... Take a screen shot of the preview and crop accordingly :wink:
While you're using the photomatix program, I'd suggest not making it look like a cartoon. Try a strength and saturation value around 70 and adjust accordingly. Also, use the highest setting (I forget what the adjustment is called, but its right below strength & saturation adjustments).
Good luck!
