HDR PHOTOGRAPHY
I first posted this on 5/19/07 and it still gets many hits today in Google searches, so I thought I would re-post it and edit with additional information with regard to what I have grown in knowledge since that time.
I have a video lesson (tutorial) in my Photography Class on HDR (Exposure bracketing and an introduction to HDR). However, there are other lessons that lead up to this one, such as exposure compensation, which are skills needed to take the photographs that are processed into HDR.
HDR, high dynamic range, is the method of capturing several photos with the "most information" in the digital file. This information can be considered "pixel colors." An under-saturated image will have different information than an over-saturated image, as well as a good exposed image. HDR takes all of this information and combines it into a new "wow" photograph.
In the above mentioned lesson, I review and show in process many free and a few paid programs to process the HDR images. The main problem I discovered with some of the programs is the ability to line up the images. Invariably, even with a tripod, the images will not be exactly framed the same.
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Original post
I love learning new things! AnniePooh posted today about HDR Photography and I just HAD to learn what this new-to-me thing is. Thanks AnniePooh! HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range." Okay, but what does that mean? Off to search.
Wikipedia calls it HDRI and adds the word "imaging" to the end, but admits that HDR is now the new popular use of the acronym. Here I learn that the "high dynamic range" means a large range of values between light and dark areas.
HDR is done by taking several photos of the same scene, in ranges of underexposed to overexposed, and thereafter combining and blending them in software.
HDR can be achieved by "tone-mapping" through software.
This tutorial is an interesting read and shares that there is a "merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop CS2 (and not my PSE, boo-hoo!).
This Flickr group provides me with some new information and shares that HDR can only truly be obtain through these tools specifically marked as "HDR": Photoshop CS2 / Photomatix / Maya / FDRTools/HDR cameras.
Photomatix appears to have a free trial version and is $99 to purchase and their site as some great examples to view to help gain a better understanding of HDR. FDRTools appears to be another software that can be purchased and also has some tutorials. I found that HDR Shop is also $99.
If you get into these pages I am sharing, you will see more links to more pages with plenty of information to read out there!
I believe there is an open source tool you can utilize for Linux which can be found here.
DRI PHOTOGRAPHY
So, who has money to spend on more software? Not me! It could go on a wish list though. I found that an alternative is DRI (Dynamic Range Increase). Here are the DRI tutorials: luminous-landscape.com or All Day I Dream about Photography. I do believe that I can achieve some of these techniques in my PSE.
I do believe my camera has the capibility to take photos in an exposure range automatically (Auto-Exposure Bracketing). I will dig out the manual and read again.
There is a DRI plug-in available by DRI Pro for only $8.50 and is compatiable with It is compatible with Photoshop CS or higher. As can be done with some actions, I wonder if this one can be forced to work in PSE.
Bill Richardson appears to have a free action for download.