Gadget Finder

Friday, January 1, 2010

Doing HDR with LX3/D-Lux4

I just realised not many people know about this feature in the Panasonic LX3/ Leica D-Lux4. It's a really useful feature and I'm surprised that so many people don't know about it. Anyway, here are the steps required if you're too lazy to read the manual. Make sure the camera is mounted on a tripod before doing it.

1. Go to Menu.
2. Select Multi Expo.
3. Select Start.
4. Set EV to -2 and take the 1st picture.
5. Select Next.
6. Set EV to 0 and take the 2nd picture.
7. Select Next.
8. Set EV to +2 and take the 3rd and final picture.
9. Select Exit.
10. Voila! You now have a quick and easy HDR shot done in camera for you. There's no need for any software like Photomatix or any editing on our part. Just a quick and simple HDR shot in JPEG.


Here are some sample shots I did with my Leica D-Lux4. Dont mind the lousy picture, it's just a quick picture of a perfect spot to show the dynamic range coz of the dark shadowy area. Hehe.

This is a normal single shot in P mode. See how dark the shadow areas are? No good eh?




Now this is done with the Multi Exposure mode for HDR. Big difference eh? Good stuff.



Now go out there and enjoy lotsa easy HDR shots.

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9 comments:

Nicholas said...

Well done on your first post of the year. Blessed New Year to you~!.

From a fellow photographer (Nicholas)

Ian Ho said...

Hehe thanks Nick. Happy New Year to you too. You have an LX3/DL4?

Nicholas said...

My dad has the LX3. I'm looking forward to saving up for the DL4. HEEHEE

Nicholas said...

oh btw, I just lost my Canon 50D and acouple of lenses along with it. My bag just went missing after flying back from overseas. Upset about it but looking forward to a new Machine. Along with it, I lost 3000++ photos and my cherry red PSP. Painful eh? but life still goes on (: The painful part lies in the photo memories. It was in London btw.

Anonymous said...

You are a champ thanks a lot it's hard t make the right call between the 2 of them. Now I know the leica is better but the LX3 is nearly as good and $150 cheaper Cheers Siggi

Anonymous said...

How come I need a tripod to do this with my Leica D lux 4, but my iphone 4 can do it without one in a single shot?

Granted there is a quality difference in pixel numbers, but surely there is a way to get a HDR shot with a single shoot with the Leica?

Ian Ho said...

I dont think the iPhone is doing a real HDR shot as real HDR requires 3 exposures or more. The proper way to do HDR has always been to shoot a few shots at varying exposures and then merge them into a single jpeg using software like Photomatix.

What the LX3/D-Lux4 does is make life a lot simpler by merging the 3 exposures into a single jpeg for us without using a computer and Photomatix.

You could always cheat by shooting in RAW. Just take 1 shot then go home n play around with multiple exposures n then merge them back into a single jpeg.

Anonymous said...

Not so easy to do the Multi Exposure 3 shot HDR using the LX5 on a mini tripod as when the rear dial is moved it is very difficult to keep the camera and tripod still. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I know a proper tripod would improve things no end but I don't want to be carrying a big tripod around with a compact camera!

Thanks for pointing out this feature though.

Ian Ho said...

It's good to know they kept this feature in the D-Lux 5.