HDR and Beyond – Seeing is Believing!

A Guest Post by by Gavin Phillips

What is High Dynamic Range Imaging? (HDR)

HDR is when you take 3-5 or 7 photos at different exposure settings, and then merge them into a single image using speciality software. What you get are beautiful photos with incredible detail, controlled lighting and accurate colour. You cannot reproduce an HDR image manipulating a single JPG or RAW image in Photoshop.

Below is an example of a set of 7 images taken at 1-stop exposure increments. Then merged and tone mapped.

The benefits of HDR

The human eye sees an outdoor or indoor scene quite differently than what can be captured with even top grade professional digital cameras and lenses. Not surprisingly, our eyes are far more complex.

Our eyes adjust for harsher light and render colors and detail more accurately than any single RAW file can capture.

With HDR you can produce wonderfully crisp images that have excellent detail and control of lighting. You do not need to worry about harsh sunlight or very contrasty scenes.

Below is an example of my regularly exposed single shot compared to my 7-shot HDR version. When printed, the HDR version has far more detail and an overall richer look to the image.

You control your final image

There is a lot of misunderstanding about HDR. As with all new creative techniques with so many creative opportunities available, we all tend to overdo it at the beginning.

This is okay, it is our way of experimenting and finding what we like and don’t like. For business

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