HDR or High Dynamic Range is an imaging technique used in (mostly digital) Photography where more than one exposure of the same frame is merged together using software to boost the final image with a higher tonal range. In Photoshop lingo, more gamut. This technique allows greater control of light and hence far more accurate representation of the image to the real scenario when HDR is produced. View the details in the larger version of the above image.
Why use HDR?
It helps bring more tonal detail than any digital camera would capture in a single photo. It allows to shoot for scenes with high light contrast without loosing much details over traditional ways. HDR is a very new and exciting way of shooting digital images. Needless to say it will pave your way to better images for future as HDR monitor technology is almost upon us. Your photos shot in hdr today will be up to speed when the new HDR monitor technology comes to the market.
What software does one need to use HDR?
Photomatix Pro [beta], Adobe PhotoShop CS2 and Maya assist in High Dynamic Range Imaging. As far as I know the best software for the job as of now is Photomatix Pro, Adobe PhotoShop CS2 does have a function to help merge to HDR but the results don’t much appeal to me.
Technorati Tags: hdr, hdri, photography, exposure
Related Information
NOTE: The links below tend to have a bias towards a given software e.g. Photomatix or PhotoShop CS2. Feel free to wade through what you really need to read. The following links are in no particular order.
- NY Times — [updated]
- Backing winds using Photoshop CS2 — [updated]
- Photomatix group
- Flickr HDR group — (Thanks Milkos, Jeff and many others in the forum)
- Cambridge in Colour [gallery]
- Luminous Landscape
- Boingboing
- PhotoShop CS2 HDR group
- Del.icio.us HDR links
- Wikipedia on HDR
- Earth bound light
9 Responses
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Question: have all those ones you’ve posted on flickr of late been done by merging a number of distinct shots? ie, set up on a tripod etc etc etc? Some of them are lovely by the way: I’m espeically fond of the one you’ve used to illustrate this story.
Maxine, yes, all photos that have a tag ‘hdr‘ have been merged from more than one shot except the one that have ‘single_raw‘. Although HDR can also be obtained from a single shot, but the tonal quality is somewhat less appealing.
Using more than one shot: http://flickr.com/photos/karmakars/tags/hdr/
Using a single shot: http://flickr.com/photos/karmakars/tags/single_raw/
Thanks. Glad you like the title photo. That is one of my personal favourites too. In my next post I’d be discussing a bit more in detail about HDR somewhat hands on.
Nice work, Amit! Love the one of the street, and the skylight. I finally broke down and purchased photomatix pro. I’ve also tried the beta version, but I’m afraid it really messes up things. Same with the PS CS plugin.
Here’s my HDR files at flickr, having finally gotten a pro account and uploading them (big files). Send me a msg on flickr anyone if you want a large copy of any of these.
Eli, Thanks. Congratulations on your purchase. They’ve also released a beta 2.2 version and are asking users for feedback. So do give it a whirl.
http://www.marielydiejoffre.com/pm/pmp22beta3.dmg.bin or
http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/beta/mac2dot2.html
Check this out. Slightly over-processed but brilliantly done. http://flickr.com/photos/alive_in_calgary/131636058/
Awesome writeup, Amit.
I just got myself a nikon D70s…my first digital SLR…
Will get my hands dirty on this.
Never knew people post process the shots to add more depth to it..
very informative. Keep it up.
Thanks
Glad it came handy Sharvil!
hey mate, if you look at my blog there you can see some of my first attempts at HDR, but there no way as good as some of yours, theres an element of “noise” about mine, have you any tips or ideas? I’m using a nikon d50
your pics are amazing
Stefan, thanks for your kind words. Digital cameras have not come of age yet but the best way to minimise noise is to shoot in low ISO, very clean and L series lens (this applies if you are on Canon body) if you are shooting digital. Once you have your shots ready, treat them with Neat Image or Noise Ninja. Hope that helps.
Custom function 2 on Canon provides greater noise reduction. It’s not on by default because it takes as long as the exposure time to process. With HDR (unless shot hand-held) you have a lot of time.