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Have you ever photographed a beautiful landscape only to discover that the print shows a washed-out sky (or, if the sky is a beautiful blue, the foliage is much too dark)? Have you found it impossible to photograph the interior of a building in such a way that you can also see the scenery through its windows? Such problems occur because a single photographic exposure cannot preserve everything from the whitest white to the blackest black in a scene that contains an enormous range of tonal values. Ansel Adams faced the very same challenge.

The digital solution far surpasses the techniques Adams had available. All you have to do is take a series of photographs of the identical scene, with at least one exposure capturing perfect highlights, another recording faithful midtones, and a third preserving ideal shadows, then merge them into a single image. How to perform these steps is clearly explained in this logically organized PDF document. One bit of good news is that you don't need a fancy camera — author Jack Howard intentionally chose for his examples 8-bit JPEG images that could have been taken with a point-and-shoot digital camera rather than a dSLR. If you have a tripod (or something almost as good) to hold the camera steady and already own Photoshop CS2 or CS3 Beta, you're all set. Otherwise (for example, if you own only Photoshop Elements), you'll need either Photomatrix Pro ($99) or FDRTools Advanced (€39). Most of the book explains how to use each of the three Mac-friendly programs to merge the low-dynamic-range source images into the high-dynamic-range output image.

As methodical, well written, and short as this eBook is, it is not for the beginner. The "Common Terms and Definitions" on pages 5 and 6 presume that you already know a lot of photographic jargon. You must be familiar with "digital darkroom" techniques (processing your photos using software). You will need to understand exposure values, underexposure, and overexposure, and if your camera does not offer an AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) feature, you will have to bracket manually by keeping the aperture and ISO steady while varying the shutter speed (which can be done in manual mode or by using Exposure Compensation). You will also need to focus manually. These techniques are explained, but briefly.

Assuming you do have the requisite knowledge, you can't go wrong with this step-by-step guide. Whether your aim is photorealism or fantastic creations, everything you need to know is here, and you can even skip the half of the book that covers the software packages you aren't using. One author-supplied note of warning: "HDR Imaging is addictive."