In the world of photography, we all are constantly looking for new ways to get the best possible picture in the best possible light. One of the newest types of photographic technology is HDR technology. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range photography. It is not the simplest technique to understand -- but if you learn the concepts, have the right software and a camera to take the multiple exposures -- you will be very pleasantly surprised by what a full dynamic color range does for your photographs.
So what exactly is HDR photography? It is a computer manipulation of multiple photos taken of the same scene at different exposure levels that are then combined with the use of software (and a lot of creativity) to produce the desired end-result HDR photograph. In other words, you take multiple pictures of the same scene, use your camera’s different exposure (under and over expose it in 3-9 shots depending on the scene) and then use the computer software to combine this into what you want. This way detail and color are preserved in the low light areas, and highlight areas are not blown away either. The resulting range of color and tonality are amazing to see.
Photo copyright Craig Meurer 2009
The good news with high dynamic range imaging is that almost any camera can be used. The camera must allow for the over and under exposure settings on the camera -- but as long as it does you can do this -- then you can take these different images and translate them into HDR.
It’s easy to understand why photographers would like this technique. It allows for exceptional creativity and gives the photographer much more leverage and freedom to truly capture the essence of the image. HDR captures light and color not normally caught with just one photo shot.
By merging multiple exposures you can use color and tone mapping abilities to capture the details that you desire. Tone mapping is the process of pulling out those pieces of the photograph that you want pulled out and working on them. For instance you can keep shadows, brighten or darken colors, have light blooms around windows and sunsets and all types of contrasts that are done using this technology and the other levers that are available to you.
Some tips: Be sure to use a tripod so the scene is exactly the same in each exposure. Also use aperture priority or the same F-stop in each shot. It sounds simple but you want to take the camera exposures separated by either one or two stops. You will need to make sure you take the time to take these photos from one end of the light spectrum to the other for this to work properly. Again, this requires multiple shots of the same image and can cause a bit of difficulty depending on your camera. You may need a remote shutter release to ensure stability of the image.
The whole process of HDR photography is then dependent on the management of the software you get to merge the photos. You can take all the photos in the world but if your software does not have the HDR capabilities it won’t matter how well you did that part of the process. There are many software packages out there today with more on the way each and every day. Photoshop and Photomatix are two of the more popular.
HDR photography is a young growing field. This is a new technology that will find its way into the mainstream. High dynamic range photography is right for some photos and not right for others. There are some images that are best left in its original state with no manipulation (such as action or motion photos that cannot be captured with multiple identical scenes. Modeling is hard but can be done with patience).
You as the photographer will have to decide what that “vision” is for the photo. In the meantime if you are interested in HDR photography you should begin to look for the software that is currently available for this purpose. And, see our extended series on HDR.