Has anyone experiemented with this technique? I have been looking at examples online and they are some pretty awesom pictures. Unfortunately my camera is in the mail, so i can't test this out until i recieve my camera. If anyone has done this technique is it easy to accomplish? I know that you take three pictures with one being under exposed, one at normal, and then the other over exposed then you merge them together in photoshop, i have also heard that there are other programs that do this out there that are better than photoshop, is this true? has anyone tried different techinques to this, did it work?

I ordered the Canon Rebel XSi with the lens kit and a 17-40mm lens. I should get those here in the next couple days, hopefully tomorrow. The camera is in Las Vegas which is only a four hour trip from where i live.

I am so excited and keep checking the tracking number every half an hour, thinking that it will be closer.

I haven't tried it myself but I think it can look really amazing.

Photomatix by HDR Soft is meant to be the best, for tone mapping anyway (which is the compression of 32 bit images down to normal 16 or 8 bit)

For stitching the exposures into one 32bit image, you can either use Photomatix, or Photoshop and get the HDRSoft plugin simply for tone mapping.

Only thing I find with Photomatix is it's really easy to go over the top and produce these cartoony looking images.

Photoshop does have a HDR function, but it's not as good or easy to use I find

You can also do manual HDR merging with layers and layer masks in photoshop, lots of control but takes a lot of time.

Awesome. I will look into that program. I have photoshop but i have also heard its not the best for HDR

can anyone point me to a tutorial on how i can combine two images to form an HDR image using photoshop?

Just Google it and see what comes up.
This is how I was taught to do it. To start you need to have a decent camera that allows you to adjust the exposure you need to take no less than 3 shots I would take 5-6. The first shot should be your basic generic shot and than half of the others should be above and half below the baseline. Next you start Photoshop I use CS3. go to FILE-> Automate->Merge to HDR, in this screen you need to select all the photos that you took. The next screen will let you adjust basic exposure, you can also remove photos if one overpowers the photo in a negative way. In the upper right section click on the drop down and select 16 bit, on the next screen select local adaptation and play with the curve until it looks good, be careful it is sensitive! Everything after this is basic adjustments in PS.

Things to remember
-Use a Tripod- all images must be EXACTLY the same with different exposure.
-Avoid excessive shadows it make the image looked smudged and tacky even though this is stream lined it shouldn't look thrown together. The same holds true for Highlights as well.
-Try to use a camera that has Aperture priority it will give the best results. No less than f-11, f22 or higher if lighting permits it.
-Try to avoid doing just HDR it is becoming a little overdone b/c of the ease of workflow. Try incorporating something else after you have learned the basics, try wide angle lenses, panoramas,something to make it unique I think HDR still has a little bit of growth Let.

If you have any questions just email me.