Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

HDR Photos

I’ve noticed up on Flickr that a number of people are producing what are known as HDR photos. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. I thought I’d give this a whirl, since my camera is capable of AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing), the ability to take three shots in quick succession with different exposures. Those individual shots are then recombined into one using HDR software to produce the finished image. I’m using Photomatix to do this. If you’re interested, here’s an excellent tutorial on the process that explains the background and the steps very well indeed.
 
Clearly, there’s as much art as science in producing good results, and I’m just a beginner at this. Nonetheless, to give you an idea, here’s two versions of the same scene, first the original as shot by my camera using optimum exposure, and then an HDR version using three shots combined into one.
 
20080720-1128-55 
 
20080720-1128-55_(1)_(2)_edit_080720 
 
Notice how the HDR version reveals more detail, particularly in the clouds? I think I’m going to be doing more of this…

Categories:

4 responses to “HDR Photos”

  1. Cassie Avatar
    Cassie

    It is cool…but it looks more like a CGI than a photograph…a useful tool, yes…but not something to be used constantly. Go look at some clouds…they don’t LOOK like that. Aw, heck…don’t mind me…I’m just old….

    Reply
  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Cassandra, that’s what I meant when I said that it was just as much art as science. The best results are probably subtle ones. Still, I have to try it out…

    Reply
  3. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Oh, and sometimes clouds DO look like that… The fact of the matter is that our eyes have the capability of distinguishing a dynamic range of 50,000 to 1, but photographic (and indeed, print) media are lucky if they can cope with a range of 300 to 1. So, something has to give. More about the phenomenon, and about the ways that artists have dealt with it over hundreds of years can be found here.

    Reply
  4. Bal Avatar
    Bal

    One of my space friends is into photography and has lots of interesting pictures on her space.  Her space name is Cornish Maid and you can find her listed in my space friends if you want to visit her site and have a look.  I will definately pass on this info to her and no doubt (being a friendly Cornish lass) she will pop over and find out more about it (if she doesn’t already know???)

    Reply

Leave a comment

More posts