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Creating vivid images through the use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography
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Living in Central Florida is, in many ways, a “target-rich environment” for photographers. There are beaches just a short drive from Orlando, idyllic parks with century-old oaks, beautiful palm-sprinkled landscapes, and, of course, the theme parks filled with color and unusual scenery. There’s one big problem with Central Florida when it comes to photographic settings, and that’s the flatness of the landscape. There’s a sharpness between land and sky, and with the bright sun (especially off the water), contrast become problematic. Setting photographic exposure to bring out the detail foreground objects often result in washed-out sky views, and getting the richness of color in blue and white streaked skies can turn the foreground into dark, formless shadows.
Technology is both problem and the solution in this case. The problem is that the camera eye (actually film or digital imaging hardware) does not have the range of color and contrast that the human eye has. That’s one of the reasons that amateur photographers have difficulty in capturing photographic images that look like the scenes they see with their eyes. The solution is to use technology in terms of a technique, the exposure controls of the camera, and software to “build” pictures with the dynamic range experienced by eyes.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is a technique that produces photographs with the contrast range that is closer to what the human eye is able to perceive. This is not simply a technique that involves the manipulation of an image in software such as Photoshop; in fact, it typically involves the combination of three or more photographs. The results are often amazingly vivid, and the level of difficulty is not beyond the reach of an intermediate photographer.
The idea is to take several photos ranging from underexposed to overexposed. This is aided by the technology built into the camera itself—most typically it would be through the use of the auto-bracketing feature. The separate images are then merged into a single picture. Many of today’s consumer-level DSLR cameras (and even several of the higher-end point-and-click models) have an auto-bracketing feature. You will set up your camera so that the camera does not move (using a tripod is recommended), and that when the shutter is pressed (preferably using a remote), several images are captured automatically. It is useful to keep the aperture setting constant through all the pictures, and be sure to have any flash on your camera turned off. It is also useful to make sure that all the images are captured in the camera’s RAW mode, if it has one.
As was mentioned earlier, Photoshop can be used to manipulate the photographs in the sequence. However, there are other, specialized software titles that are well-suited for the task; Photomatix Pro is one of these alternative software solutions. Once you have created your initial HDR image, you will go through a process of “tone mapping” to adjust color and contrast. When tone mapping within Photomatix Pro, you will use a group of sliders within the program. Often, trial, error, and experimentation are your best methods of finding the image composition you like best. And if you have multiple images to work with, Photomatics Pro has a batch control to allow the processing of several images in a basic HDR format.
For more information on the HDR process, you can find many articles online. Check out Professional Photographer and the article “High Dynamic Range, Even with Moving Subjects.” HDR photography can yield some very impressive result… as long as the photographer is willing to experiment with the technology.
- Hap Aziz
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