Using HDR Photography to Capture the Full Tonal Range of a Scene

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography is the process of capturing and processing photos that capture a large dynamic range, from light to dark. The human eye has a much larger dynamic range than the standard digital camera sensor, and so HDR photography can be used to capture images that more accurately represent what we see.

High Dynamic Range processing is similar to exposure blending, initially you must take a bracketed photo with under exposed and over exposed images to capture the full tonal range of a scene.

You then use software to automatically blend these images into a single High Dynamic Range Image. The High Dynamic Range image can’t actually be viewed on most monitors, but you can apply tone mapping to the image, which takes the tones of the HDR image and maps them into an 8 or 16 bit color space, so the image is viewable.

Although many people may be used to seeing HDR photographs that look somewhat surreal, the look of the photograph all depends on the settings used when tone mapping, and realistic looking tone-mapped HDR photos are easily achievable with most HDR software.

There is a wide range of HDR software available, some of the more commonly used HDR software includes:

• Photoshop CS5
• Photomatix
• EasyHDR
• FDRTools

Most HDR processing software will give you a range of options when tone mapping an HDR image, allowing you to carefully define the look of the finished image. Some HDR software even includes ‘de-ghosting’, which eliminates problems with moving objects between photos.

Are there any disadvantages to HDR imaging? It may take you a while to get used to the software and tweak the settings to consistently get results you are happy with. Most HDR programs are not free, but neither is it prohibitively expensive either.

The time taken to process images is longer compared to taking a single image with a split neutral density filter, but most HDR software offers batch processing. So you can get on with something else while the HDR software works away in the background.

Dave Kennard writes for www.discoverdigitalphotography.com, offering photography tips and advice. The website covers all types of photography, including landscape, portrait, and macro, and is updated with new tips on a regular basis. So to improve your photography, check out www.discoverdigitalphotography.com today.