I've come to send Mary's church in the village of Pledgemilly in the county of Saray. It's a very attractive village, astride the 825 trunk road, but there are two motorways, not too far away, which you might just hear in the distance. I'm not a lover of HDR, that of course stands for high dynamic range. When photographing in a church, such as this, where you've got enormous contrast, I usually just take a single image, save the raw, and then make adjustments afterwards in Lightroom. Now with HDR, you're supposed to use a tripod, but I am told that the technology in this setup, the Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II, 12 to 100 pro lens. Both units have separate image stabilizers that work together, so it should be possible to hand hold the camera using HDR. Now I must confess, I'm a complete and utter novice at this. I've had a practice run at home, but now we've got the real thing. So, fingers crossed, I'm going to give it a try. Access to HDR from the EM1 Mark II is from the front button, top plate on the left, where the on-off switch is located. Information is displayed on screen. Rotate front dial to select a setting. The first two process the image to a JPEG automatically. The others are merged in a computer using Photoshop or a similar product. My objective, as is the case in many churches, is to achieve a correct exposure in a church ranging from a dark interior to a much brighter window. No camera can achieve this in a single image. One answer is to correct in post-production or use HDR, which takes multiple images in register at different exposures, merging them automatically in camera or in Photoshop. Until now, I have adjusted single raw images in Latrum. To give HDR a fair test, I am not going to control the camera too much, starting with the metering on ESP with the EV at 0. Multiple images are processed in the latest subscription editions of Latrum and Photoshop, the latter appearing to be more comprehensive. HDR1 merges three images, HDR2.5. As this was my first attempt, I tried HDR1, combining three images in camera to JPEG. If you save to raw plus JPEG, the camera saves a separate raw file from the same shot. This I adjusted in Photoshop using the converter, which has allowed me to beef up the white balance of it. I took a second shot where the merging is executed in Photoshop. The camera saves the three images as raw files, and I have merged them using photorealistic preset without any further adjustment. From these examples, I quickly realized that I needed to control exposure. So I set it to spot using the electronic finder to pre-select the best exposure. I have meted near a window, still using three image merging, but the interior is rather dark. This can be corrected merging the three raw files in Photoshop, although the overall exposure is improved the colors look artificial. Again, I used photorealistic preset for merging, but have now played with the controls. Here are the settings. Returning to the single raw file saved at the same time as the JPEG automatic version, I have been able to exercise greater control in Photoshop as to how the interior of the church is interpreted. Again, I am guilty of enhancing colors by changing white balance, which is not to everyone's taste, but at least it can be changed later. With these examples, I also show the Photoshop settings for correcting a single raw image, my normal working practice, and by taking the highlight slider right down, I can restore the window. This I find more difficult and less successful with HDR in Photoshop. I decided to move on to the 5 image version, by which time the sun had come out creating greater contrast, a wider dynamic range. However, the 5 image version did offer more flexibility, but I still find the colors of the HDR merge in Photoshop to be rather manufactured. Also, when adjusting a single raw image again in Photoshop, I have more choices, especially white balance. I am not convinced that HDR would replace my current working methods, but as I was concluding my explorations for this production, I checked once more the presets in Photoshop and discovered Scott V. I don't know how I missed it because at the click of a mouse button, it corrects the HDR images automatically to something very close to my preferences. The image stabilization is impressive. I took many more examples often at a 15th of a second, but they are all sharp and in a register hand held. Maybe HDR works better in less demanding lighting, but I would for the time being questioned my own lack of experience, and for these reasons I will consider it as backup to my current working practice. Maybe another production when I get more experienced. You