HDR Processes, Theory, Pros and Cons

Steven Aren

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is a method to capture detail from different exposures using multiple images at different f stops and merging them into one image to pick up the areas of detail from each exposure. This is a process that has been used for many years in both film and digital photography, this process has became massively popular in Urbex (abandoned building exploration) in the last few years, this process has also been used widely for landscape photography and commercial work. There is in my opinion a fine line between HDR making an image and breaking an image as when the HDR method is used to produce a hype real image it can some times to me seem to over done and make the image look cartoony or even fake. 

Dance Academy wall Coran Gleed

This a basic image that I will try to make look more interesting by using the HDR method, the first thing to do when creating a HDR image out of a single photo is to shoot on RAW then open the photo in RAW software save the image as a tiff or a DNG file, open up the same image again and on the RAW software and use the exposure slider to put the exposure up by one stop, save this again as a TIFF or DNG file and repeat the process again but insted use the exposure slider to go down one stop save as a TIFF or DNG. After you have 3 different images at different exposures drag them into the Photomatix and wait for the image to appear, the Photomatix software gives you some pre made options or you can use the sliders to create the effect you require. This is the Dance Academy's wall put through a basic HDR process. 

As you can see the images detail is maximized, all the photo is in focus and the colour is much richer.

Pros & Cons

In my opinion HDR is a hit or miss technique in the way of it does not suit every image.Some im ages such as the one another are great for HDR images in my opinion with less depth but high texture for detail work where as images with depth and quite flat look CGI,

This image is a deadpan shot of fallen trees caused by a storm the image is over exposed and has no high level of any photography skill but what the image does do is show the point of the story and does not detract from the story that's being told by being asstectically beautiful. where as this image underneath is a gorgeous image and could be used for advertisment but if it was put in to a story about a crisis such as a tree disease the image would not be suitable also the HDR in the image has given the image a boost in saturation and makes the image look more like a painting than a photo, I also think HDR is over used now days and becoming tacky. On the other hand HDR creates some jaw dropping photos and is a method that i will neather shun or use to offten unless neccisary.

PHOTOMATIXS

Photomatix is a software that helps create a HDR image the way to use it is to either bracket the images in the photo taking process or to take a RAW file into RAW software then change the exposures, keeping my original exposure save the image then open it up in RAW again put the exposure slider down one exposure save it, then the same to another just putting the exposure up by one then save it.

Drag all of these files in to Photomatix and you will see this box appear:

  click on merge for HDR processing then press ok and this box will appear:

Checking that these are the files I want to be merged in Photomatix then pressing ok if they are correct. This will come up:

On this box there is the options for how many stops I have bracketed my images, in this case 1 stop.

This box is handy if I were to be using bracketed images, if I was the remove ghost will try to line up any movment in the images so theres no ghosting on the image, also the remove noise is handy if I was using over three images to merge as the more images I merge the more noise will be added. After pressing preprocess I am confronted with a merged image this can be changed to my requirments on the sliders or I could use the presets located on the right hand side.

After playing around with sliders I came to the  image I wish to create: 

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