The Canon PowerShot S90 I bought last fall (when my right shoulder was basically out of commission due to a massive rotator cuff tear) has proven to be a great camera for High Dynamic Range photography – in addition to everyday use.
Yesterday, I headed out to try to master the settings for HDR on the S90 – heading over to Berkeley to shoot some photos on the UC Berkeley campus (see this Flickr set). I had posted the basic settings I’ve been using back in late January.
Yesterday, I experimented a bit more – particularly moving away from fixed to Auto ISO and ensuring that the f/stop I used was set to the mid-point of the remaining range available after you’ve composed the shot and cranked in any zoom. Allowing the ISO to be managed by the camera helps ensure that the under and overexposed shots are actually achievable. My earlier experience with fixed ISO was that I’d sometimes end up with one of them not being a full 2 f/stops away from normal.
In post-processing, I also experimented with the new HDR Pro feature of Photoshop CS5. I came away liking some of the results but continue to like the Photomatix Pro effects better. I’ll continue experimenting with Photoshop CS5 as I’m still learning how to tweak the results to come closer to my favorite look with Photomatix. When I have a chance, I’ll post some comparison shots between the two post-processing tools on Flickr.