Well I wanted to experiment with HDR on a image I took yesterday. I loaded up 12 different images at various exposures and as CS2 is compiling them it tells me there is "not enough dynamic range to create a file" How much more of a range does it want or am I missing something.

Hey Viper,
I just thought to myself, Oh, I can do this, ha ha  mine failed with the exact error.
I did a quick search and found this - much better image example then what I chose.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm

I'll try again after I finish my current project.. Yell at me if you find something better yourself.

Ciao
Dave

A few questions;

1. How are your "different" exposures set up?......Are they bracketted?  ie, +3.0Ev, +2.5, +2, +1.5, +1,+0.5, 0,  -0.5, -1, -1.5, -2, -2.5, -3.0Ev....I know that gives me 13 exp...but you know what I mean...
2. 12 RAW files into CS2 to create an HDR will require a lot of memory/horsepower...are you sure that's not the problem?( although your error message says otherwise)....Usually a 5 exposure bracket 2 up, 2 down and one even, will do just fine.

I know this can happen if you try create the bracketed shots from 1 Raw file. This, I believe can be countered by deleting the exif data then manually entering in the exposure compensation values later in the HDR generating  process... Hope that's of some help.

I've only had that problem when as Kai mentioned the bracketed shots are create from one RAW file but not actually shot on location and bracketed in camera.

I used Photoshop CS2's Merge to HDR function a few times last week. Each time I only used two RAW exposures with one full stop difference between the two, and it worked flawless.

Question: where your files shot in RAW and converted to 16 bit..?

Files where shot in raw, I used one raw file and changed the exposure in lightroom then exported them out as 16bit tiffs

@viper...looks like you've got your answer...using one RAW with changed exposures will give you a "pseudo" HDR with progs like Photomatix...obviously CS2 doesn't like it.

In any event, if you want to get the best dynamic range you will need to bracket your RAW's with the cam...then create your HDR from that bracketted series.

Thanks, going to play bracketing this weekend.

Quote - @viper...looks like you've got your answer...using one RAW with changed exposures will give you a "pseudo" HDR with progs like Photomatix...obviously CS2 doesn't like it.

In any event, if you want to get the best dynamic range you will need to bracket your RAW's with the cam...then create your HDR from that bracketted series.