A couple of weeks ago, I thought I knew what HDR was. Boy, was I ever wrong. When I saw the detail, depth and color this technology brings to my own photos, HDR photography blew my mind.
High-dynamic range endows photos and videos with a broader tonal range so you can see details in both bright and shadowy areas. I understood that intellectually, but when Adobe shipped a new version of its Lightroom software that let me edit HDR photos on higher-end computers and phones, I actually saw them for the first time. A gulf separated what I thought HDR is and what it actually offers.
By clicking that “HDR” button in Lightroom, flat-toned highlight areas in my photos suddenly take on vibrant life. Bright yellow flames leap out of my screen. Washed-out skies turn a rich blue. Clouds show previously hidden billows and contours. New Mexico aspen leaves in the autumn explode with golden color. After the recent annular eclipse, I see sunspots and structural details on the sun’s face that I hadn’t realized my camera could even capture.
But there’s a dark side to HDR, so to speak, and it’s a doozy. Most people don’t have hardware or software capable of showing this glorious imagery. I can’t even publish a comparison photo at the top of this story to illustrate how marvelous HDR photos are.
Such is the way of technology. As sci-fi author William Gibson observed, the future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed. I hope HDR spreads as rapidly as possible, because I love it.
Here’s a look at the glories and the complications of HDR photography and how it might start showing up in your own photography adventures.
What is HDR?
First, for those of you who may have heard the term but don’t know exactly what it is, HDR is a technology designed to capture high-contrast scenes and bring them to our eyeballs more convincingly.
Many scenes with only a modest span of bright and dark elements are no big deal for ordinary cameras and displays. But when you combine bright sunsets with…
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