HDR Photography Done Right
by Patrick Arseneau – HDR photography is gaining popularity these days because of it’s eye catching dynamics. When you browse photo albums that contain HDR photos, they always seem to stand out. The dramatic colors, contrast, and brightness is a good combination for that “wow” factor. Does that mean HDR is better than regular photos? Absolutely not. A lot of HDR photos will get your attention quick, but lose your interest even faster. That’s when I say the photo is a failure. A good HDR photo should get your attention quick and make you stare at it and see all the little details you wouldn’t normally see in a regular photo.
Let me start by explaining what HDR is. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. The purpose of the HDR technique is to make all exposure range of a photo become visible. Because the human eye is more advance than any camera, it is easy for humans to look at a subject and instantly adjust the eye to see shaded areas or really bright spots like a white dress under sun light. Cameras however can only settle for a small range of exposure and darker areas become almost black, and brighter areas become almost white.
The HDR technique is to combine multiple photos of the same subject with different exposures and blend them together for a wider “dynamic range”. That means you can blend a low exposed bright area such as the sky with a high exposed dark area like the shaded side of a building. Not only do you get a high dynamic range, but you also get a greater number of colors to manipulate. This is what a lot of people get carried away with.
Bad HDR
Keep in mind that this is my personal opinion and I don’t judge other people’s artistic taste. I’m just going with my own view on how HDR photography should be used to enhance photos.Take this photo for example:
The image really stands out and the details shown are pretty attractive. But what about the subject? In this case, the Beetle. Does it stand out? I find that the HDR is a little over done and it brought out too much details in the background which collide with the subject. I lost interest so for me, it’s a failure.
In this one:
The subject really stands out and that’s nice. I like the composition, etc, but we’re talking about HDR here. The HDR brought out some powerful colors but I find that the artist over did the saturation of those colors making a nice picture look like a painting. This is a common thing in HDR galleries and again, I’m not judging the artistic value and a lot of people actually like the fact that it looks like a painting. What I’m saying is that the HDR technique wasn’t used for it’s true purpose.
Good HDR
What I like to see in HDR photography is to be able to see the details and colors you wouldn’t normally see in a regular photo. It’s easy and probably tempting to go overboard when creating HDR pictures but when it’s done properly they really stand out and they really are “eye candies”. Here’s a few examples that I find outstanding:
The “Dave Hill” Effect
If you like was you see, let me introduce you to Dave Hill. Dave uses some of the techniques shown above but that’s only a fraction of it. This guy took HDR and brought it to another level. He literally turned it into his own style. A lot of photographers refer to it as the “Dave Hill effect”. Here are some of his recent work, but you should also check out his site at davehillphoto.com.
