Aurora HDR 2019 is still my favorite HDR conversion software for realistic images. Aurora HDR can give you a great blend without the harsh HDR look that many other software dish out. Here’s an example.

Treasure Falls

Treasure Falls is on Highway 160 between Cortez and Colorado Springs, near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Old growth forest. A lovely stream. A steep switchback trail of a quarter of one half a mile at 11,000 feet takes you to the 105 foot falls. Unfortunately, after the hike I found the falls to be not more than a trickle. I tried but was disappointed that even with multiple neutral density filters I couldn’t register much water issuing over the falls. Guess I’ll have to make a trip back there in the Spring for another chance when water.

Fall back

I didn’t want to come away from this beautiful space skunked photographically. I headed for another part of the stream and went to work. It was midday and lots of contrast in the scenes where I enjoyed the composition. HDR to the rescue. I found my composition and made a five bracket exposure with a small aperture. The slow aperture had a twofold purpose. Full depth of field through the scene and to slow the water to give a soft rendition of the water flow.

Put the pieces together

Post production plays a major part in much of my imagery. In this case, blending the five stops of exposure into a solid base from which to massage the image. Aurora HDR 2019 has the ability to give a solid photographic blend. It also has some very useful massaging tools such as Image Radiance, Glow, Gradients and more.

five image bracket
Five image bracket of a super contrast scene.

After leaving Aurora, Photoshop dodging and burning and selective sharpening were used to finish the look.

treasure falls stream photo
Final image after processing five stop exposure with Aurora HDR 2019 and Adobe Photoshop.

Single Exposure HDR

SOOC BTS image
Straight out of Camera file. Some pretty blown out highlights. Not how I want to show off my photography skills even in my BTS images.
processed behind the scenes image fotopro tripdod
Single exposure HDR image processed through Aurora HDR 2019. Much Mo’ betta! Fotopro T-Roc Max tripod topped with a Platyball Elite ball head.

In taking my Behind the Scenes image of my equipment I didn’t bracket multiple exposures. Oops! I thought I didn’t have an image worth showing because the highlights in the background seemed to be totally blown out. I put the image into Aurora HDR 2019 and had it process a Single Image HDR. Impressive results that needed just a little touch up in Adobe Photoshop to be an image I’m happy to share.

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob