HDR: the beginning, shooting

As can be seen on the Picture 2 and 3, the dynamic range of the camera is pretty poor. It depends on the sensor, the CCD sensors have the dynamic range about twice higher than the CMOS. It also depends on the output format of the camera, which usually is JPG.
There are two ways to get an HDR image:
 >from (usually) three images (one with normal exposition, one overexposed and one underexposed). Later these images are joined using specific software. I used Photoshop (CS2 or later), Photomatix and Dynamic Photo HDR. From my personal point of view Dynamic Photo HDR is far better then the other two. Photoshop and Photomatix don't give u much control on the final image processing.
 >from a single RAW file. I will treat a more detailed processing of RAW files in a separate section.

The first method consists in shooting three consecutive photos of the same object with different exposure levels. The best way to achieve it is to use exposure bracketing. Most cameras have it. The most usual range of exposure levels is from -2 to +2, but in some cases it is convenient to use lower ranges, like -1,7 to +1,7 or even -1,33 to +1,33. The last range may be recommendable in cases when you're shooting white, like a statue, in conditions of small light contrast. The results may be interesting, like shown in the Figure X (CORRECT PICTURE TO FIGURE AND PUT NUMBERS). It is always recommended to use a tripod while shooting these three pictures, because they must be almost perfectly aligned. You will have a very good advantage if you use the Dynamic Photo HDR for processing, because it has a wonderful tool that allows you to manually align the images. It means that if you didn't use tripod, the small relative displacements of the photos and even rotations, can be corrected manually. Automatic alignement doesn't always do it right. VERY IMPORTANT: Always make sure that the only difference between the pictures is the exposure time, because if you vary ISO you will get noise and if you vary the aperture you will have different depth of field on the three pictures and that may lead to ugly results. Also it's a good idea to use exposure bracketing instead of manually changing the exposure. It's faster and easier.