A. Applying HDR to Bracketed Pictures
High Dynamic Range is best applied to bracketed pictures. Bracketed pictures refer to pictures of a similar scene photographed with different exposure settings. To learn how to bracket or take multiple pictures with different exposure settings, refer to the Steps to bracketing tutorial.
Step One:
Open all the bracketed photos you want included in your HDR image. We will use the photos in the PhotoImpact Samples folder. Go to the path: C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead PhotoImpact 10\Samples\HDR. Open HDR 1-1.jpg, HDR 1-2.jpg, and HDR 1-3.jpg in PhotoImpact.
The three sample pictures have good and bad points. The exposure settings in the first sample image shows perfectly exposed blue skies but it produced an intensely dark room interior. The exposure settings in the second picture maintains the relaxing colors of the mountain range but it washed out the colors of the sky. In the last image, the exposure settings used made the varnished wall interiors visible but it overexposed the background.
Step Two:
Select Photo: High Dynamic Range.
Step Three:
Select Registration to allow the program to fix the registration of the loaded pictures. This is particularly useful for pictures taken without the aid of a tripod. However, it is highly recommended that you use a tripod to minimize camera shake. Select Auto crop after registration to merge images and automatically remove excess spaces. Click Preview to see the superimposed image in the Preview window. The resulting image is merely a preview for you to check the registration and is not a preview of the HDR image.
NOTE: You will be prompted if you use images with identical exposure values. To remove images with similar exposure values, select one of the identical thumbnail image in the Image List Panel then click 
.
Step Four:
Select Auto Generate from Camera curve profile to create a camera response curve for this image set.
Tip: When you work with your images, use the camera curve profile of your camera if it is included in the list or create your own camera curve profile. To create your own camera curve profile, refer to the Creating a Camera Curve Profile tutorial.
