Where should I meter?

[Trash]

High dynamic range. This will be a good place to start:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml

Another good webpage to do HDR is Popular Photography. I am still learning the tricks of processing HDR but the Photomatrix seems a lot easier to use and obtain results.

It will be very good to use a tripod for all the shot, otherwise you will need to spend some time aligning the photos for the HDR.

Otherwise the next best tool to use is the Shadow/Highlight tool of Photoshop CS2.

 

[zcf]

Another good webpage to do HDR is Popular Photography. I am still learning the tricks of processing HDR but the Photomatrix seems a lot easier to use and obtain results.

It will be very good to use a tripod for all the shot, otherwise you will need to spend some time aligning the photos for the HDR.

Otherwise the next best tool to use is the Shadow/Highlight tool of Photoshop CS2.

any tips on how to align the photo due to shake or tilting? ;p

 

[Rashkae]

any tips on how to align the photo due to shake or tilting? ;p

Use a tripod.

Or else you'll need to do pixel-by pixel shifting of the whole image by adding in one image, changing the opacity and aligning it with a "base" image.

 

[Trash]

any tips on how to align the photo due to shake or tilting? ;p

The tools of Photomatrix does not help at all when I tried.

In the end I have to use Photoshop to align the pictures by copying them into different layers and change the opacity of each layer to align the pictures before cropping them and saving them as individual files. Painful process ;(

Even with this it is best to use a flat surface to support the camera so that you only have to deal with the translation of the pictures (i.e. left-right movement) that is relatively easy to correct. And don't have to correct the rotation of the camera.

But it's best to use a very sturdy tripod especially if you are going for a +/- 5 stops HDR (with > 5 shots) which requires you to make a lot of changes to the dials that can make the smallest shifts of the tripod to show up on the pictures.

I understand that PS CS3 might have some tools to help with the alignment. Hope it will help.