HDR photos with the GIMP

Step 9 Your first HDR image!

You now have your first complete composite HDR image! Save the image (preferably a layered copy as well as a flattened JPEG), and compare it against the original "middle" stock image- it should have less silhouette and wash-out, and more vivid colours. Often subtle HDR images look like paintings, because the painter's eyes have a much higher dynamic range than the camera so they will paint more like a HDR image. More extreme images often have a slightly dreamlike or "hyper-real" quality.

Experiment with different settings, taking a wider range of exposures for your stock photos, or using more than three layers. All the techniques described here can be extended to five or more images- just remember to invert the layer masks for layers brighter than the middle image, and use the curves tool to normalise your layer masks.