Shooting HDR With The X-Pro 2

Fujinon 10-24mm f4 @10mm – ISO 200, f8, 1/5+-2

When shooting Bodie, a ghost town high in the Sierras of California, I had my ten-month-old baby with me and I needed to be able to get some shots quick without thinking about it. It was also 94 degrees outside and somehow raining on and off. I felt that bracketing shots was a good approach to getting an interesting takes on this crazy California ghost town. I was so confident in the X-Pro 2 to be able to do this that I even left my A7rII in my car, hidden of course.

With the new +-2EV bracketing, HDR on the X-Pro 2 is a lot of fun and much much easier.

So how do you shoot HDR on the X-Pro 2?

HDR With The X-Pro 2

Shooting HDR on the X-Pro 2 has never been easier. Setting up the camera is probably the quickest out of any camera I’ve ever used. All you need to do is select the button above the menu button to alternate between your drive modes (at least that’s how I have it setup). Then with the Q menu you can set the countdown timer if needed and you’re ready to go. It literally takes me two seconds to punch in and out of the HDR bracketing settings on the X-Pro 2. I love it.

Last week I went to Bodie, so I figured this would be the perfect place to shoot some of that classic tonemapped HDR photography we’re all use to seeing when we hear those three letters . . . H.D.R.

Fujinon 10-24mm f4 @10mm – ISO 200, f8, 1/450+-2

The HDR Method

For most of these shots, I bracketed +-2 EV with the camera on a tripod and a count down timer of 2 seconds. The exception is the last shot, which was a single exposure. 

For the processing techniques, I first used Lightroom to set the color profile to Velvia. I then went through a few of my Photomatix Presets until I found one that came close to what I wanted, tweaked it a bit, then saved it out. From there I did a little bit more adjusting in Lightroom or Photoshop and that was it. No fancy tricks.

Fujinon 10-24mm f4 @23mm – ISO 200, f8, 1/350+-2

This isn’t Bodie but I shot it just outside of Bodie near June lake.

Fujinon 16mm – ISO 400, f8, 1/650

The Bottom Line

I know HDR photography has sort of a bad reputation because of all the bad HDR that’s out there, but it’s still a very fun way to add a little flavor into our travel photography and now it’s easier than ever on the X-Pro 2.