HDR Photography: Hot or Not?
HDR photography isn’t quite the new kid on the block that many people assume. But what is the science behind this form of photography? Just as importantly, what do you think of it? Is HDR hot or not? Make your own mind up, with the help of some examples.
It sometimes takes something a while for something to catch on. So it is with HDR. The words stand for high dynamic range imaging (so it is sometimes known as HDRI). The form itself has taken off hugely since the advent of digital cameras, but what exactly is it and when did it originate. More importantly perhaps – do you like it? The picture above shows an ordinary digital image compared to its HDR counterpart. Which do you prefer?
Do skies ever get this blue in Sydney, Australia? As HDR is gaining more prominence both as an art form in itself and in the media so opinion becomes more and more divided. Is it something which allows us to see landscapes, people and animals (in fact anything that can be photographed) in a new and more vibrant way – in touch with the zeitgeist. Is it simply a flash in the photographic pan or, worse is it an abomination that must be stopped at all costs? Opinion is strongly divided. Perhaps the images selected for this article will help you decide if you have not done already.
Boston as bright as you will ever see it! Now, as Jennifer Anniston among others might say, the science. HDR is a technique that enables a much larger dynamic range of luminance than otherwise. The best way to describe dynamic range is through metaphor. Take music – the dynamic range is the difference between the loudest and the quietest volume that an instrument can reach – it can also apply to part or a whole piece of music. Now imagine that in terms of color and you are getting there!
Brooklyn is not usually a place one would imagine as the setting for a fairy tale, but this image seems to suggest it could be!
Luminance – or luminous intensity – is the measure of the power of light from one particular source in one particular direction. Photometry, the science behind it, is based on a standard – and that standard is the sensitivity of the average human eye. So, the visible spectrum is light that we can see but we also have a range of sensitivities to light within that spectrum, all according to the wavelength of the light.
Spitalfields in London may seem drab on a Saturday morning, but not with HDR.
HDR allows us to ‘see’ colors within the visible spectrum but with the wavelength greatly increased. So, what we see after a photograph has gone through the process of HDR is an image with a greater luminance between the dark and the light areas of the scene. What was dark looks darker, what was lighter looks lighter.
Phone boxes from another age rust gently in the Utah sun.
Although digital photography has allowed HDR in to the hands of the masses, its origins are much older than many people suggest. The celebrated photographer Charles Wyckoff developed HDR in the nineteen thirties and forties without using computers. You may recall the shiny exaggerated colors of his pictures of nuclear explosions on the front of old Time magazines.
Tone mapping is used to give the images a higher luminance. This is where colors are mapped to each other – often to exaggeration – to retain and enhance the original range of light in the original scene that often cameras failed to pick up. You have taken photographs which you imagined would be fine but when they were developed they looked dull and lifeless compared to your memory of the time?
This is where tone mapping steps in to give a helping hand. The original aim of tone mapping was to make your holiday snaps look nice (for the mass market). However, the contrasts in the image can be heightened to give an image an almost false, surreal look. Does the picture above represent heightened realism or is the camera lying?
Add to this the fine art of bracketing. This is when several shots at different exposure are taken at the same time. Some of the shots are darker, some lighter. This technique was first attempted way back in the eighteen fifties by Gustave Le Gray who produced the first panoramas showing both the sky and the sea (because the luminosity range between the two is so large it was impossible to properly capture back than).
When you combine tone mapping and bracketing with digital wizardry you get the results that you can see here. The end result is an exaggerated luminance which some people love – but just as many hate!
While this process using digital cameras was first used in the early nineteen nineties it was – due to the technology and skill involved – used little. As such it did have an astonishing effect as it had been rarely seen before. As more and more people use HDR as an almost everyday technique (often amateurishly) then some are beginning to tire of the form.
Most of the images here (if not all) are, however, synthetic HDR images. This is when computer software is used to allow for more choice in lighting. The lighting can be simulated and exaggerated – giving us the results here. Whether you love it or hate it, HDR is with us to stay.
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27 Comments
Marcus Edward John Cross, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Having dabbled in photography myself, I know that you can use the techniques involved in HDR to create images which look more like real life than standard photographs, since our eyes are far more sophisticated than camera lenses will ever be.
However, the majority of HDR photographs are pushed beyond real and become hyper-real in appearance. It is another aspect of digital photography which takes it away from mere visually recording a scene, and towards art.
For example, that image of people walking in the street. It would only ever look like that to someone who has just taken LSD. So in a sense, we all get a safe LSD trip via HDR photography.
MJPatrick, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Fabulous photos and great article!
eddiego65, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Cool pics!
Christine Ramsay, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Thank you for this article. You have explained HDR brilliantly. Everyone seems to think we sixty pluses know what is meant by all these technical terms. I love the photography but I think maybe the colour looks unnatural. However i can understand why people like it.
Christine
Juancav, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Fine photos, hdr but we have to distinguish them from real, and tag aside, thank you.
Lost in Arizona, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Some really stunning photos. I must say, I do like HDR better, because it some how makes photos “pop” more as I like to say. I know it’s almost like cheating, but if you have a photo that is drab, or the lighting was just awful, the techniques that can be used to “clean” it up, can opt for a better photo. Well written piece.
Steve Nagel, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Imagine a camera that had autobracketing, HDR imaging, and wifi. The ultimate tourist camera for posting literally unbelievable, “don’t you wish you were here” photos.
Joshua Miguel, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
i like the photos especially the last one. great work!
Mark Gordon Brown, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
I gotta find a camera that does this. I first thought some were paintings – only the first few pictures loaded the phone booth being the last one. very exciting to view. great link
Lauren Axelrod, posted this comment on Dec 8th, 2008
These are incredible. I would love to hang these on my wall.
Lee in Brisbane, posted this comment on Dec 9th, 2008
I dont like them, they look fake and as if they were colour enhanced, totally unnatural.
Joce Boldi, posted this comment on Dec 9th, 2008
Beautiful!!!! I love these photographs! My favorite is the phone booth. Great artical too.
Anne Lyken Garner, posted this comment on Dec 9th, 2008
Cool photos, but I prefer the real thing, because you know that what you’re seeing hasn’t been tampered with or ‘improved’ in any way. Sometimes, natural beauty is best.
Matt John, posted this comment on Dec 9th, 2008
Awesome!
Deana Lynn, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
Awesome pictures…. just amazing…would love feed back on my music as well.
Bemused, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
I love HDR and tone mapping images, but I always then call my work images and not photographs. A lot of people believe that once you have fiddled with a photo it isn’t really a photo, it’s something else you have created. I prefer it when I take a photo so well that it looks perfect and nothing needs to be done, then I can call it a truly good photograph, I feel like I’m ‘cheating’ once I start fiddling. But creating fake hdr pictures is so much fun and i’d recommend it to anyone!
Great article by the way 
hdrpano, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
There are lots of possibilities to use HDR in a more natural way. I am using it for XXL (extra large) photography. The fact is that you get more details for such big prints. In fact you can use the information hdr is providing in a more ‘natural’ way of taking photographs and the software to satisfy a client.
The other thing is that we always get the more colorful impressions which are not really necessary to make a HDR point of view.
Again, it is getting more details and not more LSD pictures which I can make in non HDR pictures as well, it is called Photoshop.
C Jordan, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
A very interesting article.
Ruby Hawk, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
Your pictures are so bright and colorful. Almost like cartoons,they are so neat. Take care, Ruby
3cardmonte, posted this comment on Dec 16th, 2008
Amazing.
Ryan, posted this comment on Dec 19th, 2008
Anne, what do you mean “hasn’t been tampered with in any way?” Every photo ever taken has been tampered with in some way. With film, it’s in the choice of the film you use, the aperture you shoot at, your shutter speed, how you develop it. With digital, it’s with the ISO setting, the shutter, the aperture, and how you process the raw file (if you shoot in a non-raw format, then the camera’s programmers are doing some of the tampering for you).
Photography is an art, and art is not about what your eyes see, but what YOU see. HDR is a tool for the artist to show a scene the way he or she thinks it should be seen.
Dragon, posted this comment on Dec 20th, 2008
Ryan, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Michael Eboh, posted this comment on Dec 24th, 2008
I am very much impressed. Thank you.
Rick Harris, posted this comment on Jan 9th, 2009
Hi — one small correction. The phone booths are located in Southern Ontario Canada. Here is the correct link:
http://flickr.com/photos/rickharris/122125460
(I took that picture and the Boston shot).
My opinion on HDR, is that is abused and over-used — my pictures shown here are 2-3 years old. I rarely use that method anymore. I prefer a more realistic approach to photography now. In my opinion HDR is fashionable/trendy and will eventually fade away.
Also you will see people use HDR to improve a poorly composed or boring photograph. The picture is still boring when the novelty of HDR wears off.
There are times when it is appropriate to use HDR. When the lighting is tricky or where there is extreme light and dark. It looks best when you reduce the halo that sometimes appears between light and dark objects. Or when the color saturation is reduced — lessening that unreal, cartoonish look. Then the results are more effective.
Personally I’ve moved on and rarely use this technique any more.
Mark, posted this comment on Jan 27th, 2009
The reason most of us react to HDR pictures as being “unnatural” and not the “real” thing is simply because we have been staring at “ordinary” photographs, with their very limited dynamic range, most of our lives!
I think the point being missed here is that HDR allows the creation of photos which more accurately present the levels of light and shadow that our eyes experience (notice how good HDR pictures resemble paintings). However (the important bit), photographic paper and PC screens are not able to accurately reproduce this range of light. To cope with this limitation, mapping techniques are used to reduce the dynamic range to a level the media can cope with. That is why the pictures often look “overdone”. When we have HDR screen with contrast ratios of 30,000:1 and better we will start seeing the true potential of HDR. Until then – as with nearly all effects, a little at the right time gives the best results.
Sharon, posted this comment on Nov 5th, 2009
I agree. Cheese is by far the best way to eat a non-cheese. Results could vary depending on original statistics but the overall image stays unchanged.
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Gini, posted this comment on Dec 7th, 2008
Gorgeous! I love HDR, it’s so vivid and beautiful.