By combining multiple exposures of the same shot—preferably taken with a tripod ensuring constant camera position—HDR photography software—such as HDRtist and HDR Darkroom Pro—can combine the detail from the entire range of available brightness and color in your multiple exposures, giving your final image stunning highlights and shadows, and showing all the detail in both the sand and the coral.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the Internet, and I’ll assume you have, you’ve likely stumbled across something that seems to be all the rage these days. It’s called High Dynamic Range photography, or HDR for short, and, if nothing else, you know it looks cool. But it’s not something your camera can do on its own, no no, it needs help. But which software to choose? There are numerous applications and plug-ins available, but I found three that help you make HDR images quickly and easily. They are, in no particular order, Hydra, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix. Let’s get right to it.