HDR has become a favorite way for me to capture landscapes. I used to only capture 3 images when my histogram showed the shadows or highlights going off one end of the graph. The sun was just rising in Fairbanks when I arrived at the Riverboat Discovery. Snapping the fist image gave me this histogram. As you can see by both the histogram and the first photo, the shadows are too dark.

I set my 5D mark II up to bracket 0,-2,+2 EV. You can think of Exposure Values as stops. Setting up exposure bracketing in the 5D works like this.

Exposure Bracketing

I have had luck handholding my camera for 3 fast exposures, but I use my tripod whenever possible. I even use the 2 second timer to activate the shutter. In bracketing mode, it takes all 3 exposures without you touching the camera.

I put all 3 exposures into Photomatix 3.2. It comes with a plugin for Lightroom, so I just export directly to Photomatix using these settings. I will check the reduce ghosting when there is wind or something moved in the frame. Experiment with these settings.

These are the settings I use for my realistic output. As you move down the scale on the light smoothing section, the more surreal you image will become.

This the same image with only the light smoothing changed. I am sure you will find a setting that fits your style.

HDR Ouput

This is the final output from the 3 images. Photomatix processing brings out the colors, shadows and highlights I could not get with one image. I tend to carry my tripod a lot more these days.