I recently got into a discussion with some fellow photographers about the state of High-Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. In case you aren’t familiar with HDR photography here is the basic run down. HDR photography is a way of blending multiple exposures into a single image and getting the best parts of each exposure. In images with really high contrast, areas that are really bright, offset by areas that are really dark you can blend the images together and achieve a properly exposed image across the entire frame. Imagine a dark room with a really bright window. How in the world can you set your exposure to accurately capture the dark corner and the bright window? In typical photography you would have to settle to either expose for the window and underexpose the corner or set the exposure to accurately capture the dark corner while blowing out the exposure on the window.
The origins of HDR were developed to help situations just like these. Then along came artistic interpretation and HDR grew from a useful tool into an artistic technique. Of course some people took the concept wildly overboard and created some wild and fantastic images like the image below which is linked from Scottkelby.com
Many people like this artistic rendering and it can be used in so many different ways. It can be used to salvage a poorly exposed picture to pulling together a high-contrast image, to flat out incredible artistic interpretation.
The KTM below is given a grunge style interpretation giving the image a sinister or devious type feel.
In the image below there is a certain amount of artistic development, however HDR was necessary in this situation to balance the exposure. Shooting into the sun like this would have lost the rear wheel and made balancing the sky and landscape exposure very challenging. HDR to the rescue here.
Above motorcycle images courtesy of Ed Walker @ TopGeek.com
The way that I am using HDR these days the most is to help architectural photos. Shooting the inside of houses for real estate agents is not only a good way to make a few extra dollars, it is a great way to challenge your photographic skills. With a wide angle lens, bracketed exposure and a good HDR program like Photomatix Pro or Adobe Photoshop CS5.0 there is no limit to the great interior or exterior shots you can achieve.
Here is a photo of the interior of a room before HDR treatment.
Shot #1 Underexposed -2
Shot #2 – Proper Exposure +0
Overexposure +2
And finally, here is the image after a little HDR processing.
If you notice this image has a nice exposure of the interior of the house while keeping the windows properly exposed. If you used in an appropriate manner, HDR still has very practical applications for the working photographer. Although I really do like some HDR photos, some of them are overcooked, over processed or overdone.
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