Camera: Nikon D80
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 20 mm
Flash: No Flash
ISO: 100

How I got this shot.

First, it was handheld. Ideally, you’d want to use a tripod for any kind of high dynamic range (HDR) photograph–any camera shake usually results in a misalignment of the images.

Next, I set up the bracketing on my Nikon D80 so that it would take three shots in rapid succession. One would be exposed normally, one over-exposed (by 2 f stops) and the other underexposed. These three shots would help me capture the detail across the dark areas and the lighter areas.

Note: I used RAW not JPEG, as this gives you greater control during your post-processing.

So, now I have my three files, I use Apple’s Aperture and a plugin called Hydra HDR. This plugin not only automatically aligns my 3 images–great, because I didn’t use a tripod–but also combines the three images. This combining renders an image that has details in both the dark and light areas of the scene.

I made some minor adjustments to the saturation and sharpness, then saved the final image.

Easy as that!