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HDR photography and seeing — 14 Comments

  1. Glad I could introduce you to a new element for your visual palette.

    A few more links to HDR photos:

    –this person has a set of Trey Ratcliffs HDR photos
    webdesignledger.com/inspiration/hdr-photos-by-trey-ratcliff

    –Flickr is a site where a lot of people store their photos for display.
    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=hdr&f=hp

    –a professionally oriented site. You can purchase the photos on display here. Search on HDR. You can purchase these photos.
    http://www.smugmug.com

  2. I’m not sure that is really an HDR photo. As I understand it, HDR relies on taking three photos of the same scene: one with a nominal under exposure, one with a “correct” exposure, and one with a nominal over exposure. These three are then combined, by the magic of computer processing, to produce one image that covers the full dynamic range from all three photos.

    But, that requires the photos to be of stationary objects, so that they can be combined. Since this is obviously not of stationary objects, I don’t see how it can be the combination of three photos.

    Maybe there is a new development that I’m not aware of, but this doesn’t seem like it could be HDR.

  3. I’ve been seeing these and haven’t liked them but I thought I’d look a little closer since you do. They aren’t natural because the world disappears into grey’s and dark tones and details fade near the horizon. And that’s interesting, how the earth and sky blend together.

  4. Funny, I’d not thought of it before, but once I *heard* the term HDR, I knew how to do it, and that it was eminently possible with modern digital cameras, to the point where it should be possible to easily make cameras that can make HDR photos automatically, with only a small uptick in electronic power needed.

    mizpants: I would say that in some cases they are more like a form of surrealism than “schlock”, but they do have an enhanced color quality in some cases that isn’t realistic.

    This looks surreal to me.

    This does not

    }}}}} I’m not sure that is really an HDR photo. As I understand it, HDR relies on taking three photos of the same scene: one with a nominal under exposure, one with a “correct” exposure, and one with a nominal over exposure.

    If the CCD that takes the pictures is fast enough, then the exposures can be quick enough that the motion isn’t there — movement 1/60th of a second apart can be dealt with in the assimilation process, too. More critically, the computer can “pick” one of the pictures as the baseline, and deal with the small amounts of motion/change between them using various rule sets.

  5. In all fairness, in the film era some – Ansel Adams in particular – learned how to get the maximum dynamic range into his prints. They are pretty amazing in reproduction but when you see an original in a gallery, they have some of the surreal quality digital HDR produces. We are actually quite accustomed to seeing quite compressed dynamic ranges in most reproductions. But yes sometimes HDR looks like overly dramatic schlock, but done with a bit of subtlety it really opens photography out into new territory.I was initially interested in it but realized straight photography was my sport of choice.

  6. SteveH, I grant you some of them certainly have that, but the one I gave example of earlier, that wasn’t to my eyes, does not strike me as having that “cheesiness” at all.

    I would be interested if you could actually differentiate between legit pics and ones that were HDR pics if they were selected to avoid the excessive color range.

  7. nikon cameras have a version of it. but theirs is not with multiple pictures added together. it tends to cost you in contrast… of course the post production is always an option

  8. The new iphone has an HDR option for the camera, didn’t know what it meant until I read this post. Thanks.

  9. Two things come to.mind: Maxfield Parrish, and Amber. Neither really appealed to me beyond the age of 20 or so,but isn’t it interesting that “seeing,” as you say, can be so very subjective? It makes me wonder what I’m missing now… and what I see that others don’t.

  10. HDR photographs don’t have to be surreal or otherworldly, that is entirely up to the person doing the post processing.

    Goto the link below and you’ll see a photographers work done deliberately to make the photos look natural. You will see the before/after photos giving you a clearer idea of what is going on.

    Of course you have to remember that increasing the tonal range of a photo will inevitably make it look different from traditional unprocessed photos.

    Good seeing.

    http://allindaphotography.com/2011/11/techniques-for-creating-natural-looking-hdr-images/

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