I have recently been playing around with HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. I tried it a few times a while back using the HDR automation in Photoshop CS4, but had poor results that were to say the least, uninspiring. A month or so ago I did an assignment for a client that required me to do landscape photography. I scheduled the shoot for a window of what was supposed to be good weather. It was not as good as predicted. Dark overcast clouds with bright sun lit areas made exposures that captured the scene on full glory were difficult. When faced with this situation following the rule of thumb you expose for the highlights and let the shadows fall dark. But not any more. I shot a handful of the images with bracketed exposures thinking that I would use HDR to add some punch to the otherwise difficult lighting that I was faced with. To pull it all together since I had had unsatisfactory results with Photoshop alone I invested in Photomatix Pro, a dedicated HDR software. I was very pleased with the results.

So what exactly is HRD photography?

HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic Range. HDR photography is a digital photography post-processing technique that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image. What this means is that in a single image you can include a far greater range of values from the dark shadow areas to the bright highlight areas then can be captured by film or with digital cameras.  So much more in fact that you can actually capture a wider range of values than the human eye can see at any one time.

HDR accomplishes this by combining multiple images shot with different exposures each properly exposing for a different range of luminance or brightness within the subject; think bracketing. With computer software you can digitally combine these multiple exposures into a single image that includes properly exposed detail from dark shadow areas to bright highlights.

Take a look at the two images on the right.  The top one is a traditional single exposure shot using the best exposure I could for the scene. Notice the dark detail-less shadow areas on the right side of the canyon and the bright slightly overexposed highlights on the left side. In the second shot, made using HDR, five different frames, each shot with a different exposure are combined allowing you can see a much larger range of luminance throughout the scene.

I don’t want to get more technical than this in this post. My intent is not to write a whole lesson in HDR photography. There are a lot of great resources on the web that can explain it better than I can. I’ll list some at the end of this post. My intent here is to share my excitement for some of the images I have been creating lately using this technique.

As we have entered our “monsoon” weather pattern here in the San Juans there have been a lot of great opportunities for photographing dramatic storm clouds and light. I made this image of Mt. Sneffells from the famous Dallas Divide.

Notice in this shot the bright sky and clouds hold detail as well as the dark areas of the wood on the shaded side of this old mining building in the ghost town of Ironton.

And I am really liking how HDR images convert to black and white.

As I said, I first tried this process in Photoshop CS4 with poor and discouraging results. After a lot of research I finally bought Photomatix Pro and am thrilled with the results.  The latest release of Photoshop CS5 is supposed to include a dramatic improvement in it’s HDR ability. I have not upgraded yet so I can not report on it. But I can say that in my research on HDR, Photomatix Pro seems to be the standard of excellence. I highly recommend it.

You can download Photomatix here. It costs $39  for the light version, and and $99 for the Pro. You may also download the full Pro version on an unlimited trial basis. It adds a watermark across the image however until you purchase the license.

Here are some resources I found on line that I found very helpful.

Trey Ratcliff’s blog, Stuck in Customs
Trey seems to specialize in HDR and creates some realy cool images. They are more to the extremely manipulated side for my taste, but still very cool stuff. He also has a really good introduction to HDR, the HDR workflow, and reviews for additional software that he uses to fine tune his images.

Introduction to HDR by John Paul Caponigro
This article that appears in Digital Photo Pro magazine by John Paul Caponigro is the best resource I have found for just straight out telling you what each adjustment slider in Photomatix Pro does.

And Don’t over look the Resources on High Dynamic Range photography links on the Photomatix web site.