What is HDR photography?
I recently received a few issues of Nature Photographer magazine and ran across a photography term I was unfamiliar with: HDR photography. I did a bit of research and learned that HDR stands for “High Dynamic Range”. A common use of HDR technique is to try to create one image using a series of images shot at -4 stops, -2 stops, +2 stops and +4 stops or more on each side of the exposure settings. What you get is one image that merges the most desirable features of each image.
For example, let’s say you take a picture of a New York City skyline at night and want to include the stars up above and the lights from the buildings below. With one image you would have to choose which feature you prefer to expose properly, but with HDR you can merge several images.
Wikipedia’s entry on HDR photography includes a quote by Michael Reichmann, author of “Luminous Landscape”. With the introduction of Adobe Photoshop’s CS2, HDR photography became simplified to the point where anyone can learn how to make their own HDR images. Reichmann says:
“In many ways, Photoshop CS2′s HDR function is the holy grail of dynamic range. With properly shot and processed files it allows photographers to easily create images that were previously impossible, or at least very difficult to accomplish. But, good as it is, like a gun or nuclear power, it can be a force for evil as well as good.Not every image needs to have 10-15 stops of dynamic range. In fact, most photographs look quite nice, thank you very much, with the 5-7 stops of dynamic range that we’re used to. I fully expect to see some really silly if not downright ugly images in the months ahead, as photographers get their copies of Photoshop CS2 and start discovering what the HDR function is capable of.
But, as with all such tool, in the hands of sensitive artists and competent craftsmen, I’m sure that we will start to be shown the world in new and exciting ways.”
To learn more, start with this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
As a Mac user, I may try to get my own software for this: Hugin.
