High Dynamic Range Photography -- Software or Filters?
Perusing many of the online galleries over the past year or so, I've noticed an increasing amount of eye-popping landscape imagery. The rich tones, high saturation levels, and vast range of highlights and shadow areas all indicated to me that these must be paintings, but what were they doing in photo galleries?
Being new to photography, I was shocked to discover that these were in fact photo-based images. But how could that be?!
In his article "Was It Done With a Lens, or a Brush?", Ian Austen of The New York Times writes "Their secret was a software technology known as H.D.R., for high dynamic range photography."
Put simply, HDR Photography is the creation of a composite photo from multiple exposures of the same scene to more closely present what the human eye sees.
Imaging expert and Imatest founder Norman Koren says an entry-level DSLR camera, such as the Canon 350D or 20D, has a dynamic range of about 10 F-Stops while the human eye's dynamic range is more than 100 F-Stops.
With a number of software packages on the market that automate HDR image processing, such as HDRSoft's PhotomatrixPro ($100), Austen says that this technique is becoming very popular among amateur photographers.
According to the article, "Géraldine Joffre, the managing director of HDRSoft, said that while Photomatix was popular with amateur photographers, some professionals told the company they found its results unnatural.
"Ms. Joffre’s theory is that the pros’ assessments are based on photography’s traditional limitations — in effect, how people think photos should look, rather than the actual dynamic range of scenes."
While I agree that some professionals may consider other aspects of a photo more important than dynamic range, I do think this statement/theory by Joffre is a bit misleading. It implies that pros find the results of HDR photography unnatural, rather than, perhaps, the results of the software.
Truth is professional landscape/environmental photographers have been expanding the dynamic range of cameras well before the advent of digital photography and HDR software. Multiple film exposures in the dark room was one way, but a much easier method, and one very common today, is the use of Graduated Neutral Density filters (Grad ND filters).
© Richard Hahn 2006 - shot with Lee 0.9 ND Soft Graduated filter
Many professionals prefer Grad ND filters because they become an extension of the camera and force photograhers to make artistic and technical decisions on location, rather than during post processing. Plus, the high dynamic range results are captured with one exposure, in one frame.
So, for (d)SLR camera owners who like HDR images but want to spend more time shooting and less time in front of a computer, I would recommend picking one up. From my research, general consensus seems to be a 2 or 3 stop soft edge filter is a good first choice.
As for price, well, they generally run about the same as PhotomatrixPro. Heh. Go figure.
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