{"id":1675,"date":"2013-05-11T19:35:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T02:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2019-05-31T10:53:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:53:28","slug":"hdr-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/hdr-in-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"HDR in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

HDR in 2013 by Ned Radan<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/span><\/b>
\nHigh Dynamic Range (HDR) images are very popular discussion in photographic books and magazines. It is also a very old procedure almost old as photography. Nowadays with availability of digital cameras and image editing software, this technique is very commonly used by photographers. For successful use of the procedure, a common sense is essential. Difficulty level is from very easy (dodging and burning in Photoshop) to hard (combining an image of the sky through branches on an image intended for large print photograph).<\/p>\n

History<\/span><\/b>
\nThe first photographer to use this technique was Gustave Le Gray in his images shown in London in 1856. At the time negatives were more sensitive to blue light then to red and green. As a result, the sky would be rendered in white and subjects on earth in shades of grey. So he exposed one photograph for sky and the second one for subjects on the ground. When making prints two negatives were masked. One was used for sky and the other one for the ground.<\/p>\n

Overview<\/span><\/b>
\nVisible light, that\u2019s what we see, can be rendered with camera with ability to capture Dynamic Range of 30 f stops. Nowadays, cameras can capture roughly 5-10 f stops in one image depending of the sophistication of a camera. As a result, a camera can capture only a window of the visible light in one single image. The intent of HDR technique is to widen this window. In simple words burned highlights and unexposed shadows in an image need to be revealed.<\/p>\n

When to Use It<\/span><\/b>
\nUse of HDR technique is to be avoided unless it is necessary. For example, at noon on a sunny day shadows are harsh. That means a part of rock facing the sun and part of the same rock in the shade will have different intensity of light. This difference can be several f stops. In order to photograph this subject one would need to adjust exposure for sunny side of the rock and the second exposure for the part in shade. In the office these two exposures would be combined using image editing software to create one image. The better option would be to come at the location early in the morning or late in the evening and photograph the same subject. This time only one exposure is needed because the light does not create harsh shadows.<\/p>\n

To conclude, in some instances choosing appropriate lighting conditions gives better results than applying the HDR technique.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/b>
\nHDR technique is a tool available to a photographer in creating a desired image. As mentioned earlier it is to the photographer\u2018s common sense to decide to use it or not. Some other procedures one can use instead or in combination with HDR technique:<\/p>\n