Photograph by Trey Ratcliff

It's Round 4 of the week-long Battle of the HDR Photo Tips: Trey Ratcliff vs. Rick Sammon. Thank you for joining us ringside.

Hey, if you want to have some fun, do a Google search: I hate HDR. Post a comment here on my blog. Let us know what you think.

Trey Ratcliff is some dude on the internet that runs Stuck in Customs. His mom visits his blog every day. If people leave bad comments, then his mom gets 'em.

Rick Sammon was at Woodstock and still tries to maintain the PLJ feeling of the '60s. He also scuba dived in Lake Baikal, Sibera, where he photographed the nerpa.

Here we go:

Ratcliff: Most of the time, when you shoot HDR photos, you’ll be taking multiple exposures. So, you often end up with the old “ghosting” problem in which an object changes its XY across the plane.

I contend that you don’t have to worry about that if you want to give the impression of time flowing. This bleeds into my discussion about impressionist feelings within photos. Yes, photography is about stopping time, normally, but it doesn’t have to be.

If you are taking an HDR of a moving river or flowing steam (like below), then I like to allow the ghosting to remain. It gives a feeling of movement and time, and that’s a nice thing to communicate in a photo.

Photograph by Rick Sammon. We shoot here on my Croton Creative fall workshop.

Sammon: Uh.... I totally agree with my buddy Trey. :-)

In addition:

• When trying to capture moving water, clouds, mist and fog (and even car lights at night), use long shutter speeds - maybe between 2 and 10 seconds. Experiment with different slow shutter speeds, because the speed of moving water, clouds, etc. is not always the same.

• Of course, you'll need a tripod when shooting at slow shutter speeds.

• Use a cable release or your camera's self-timer, so you don't need to touch the camera when the shutter is released. Mirror lock-up is a feature that can help you get sharp shots for long-exposure photography.

• Want a really cool camera controller for HDR? Check out the Promote Controller:

• • •

To learn more about Trey's HDR work, click here.