I was interested to see the results recently of an HDR survey (love it or hate it) on Michael Zhang’s PetaPixel blog. For those of you who aren’t familiar with HDR, it stands for high dynamic range imaging. A digital camera sensor can only handle so much tonal range between light and dark. If a scene has a lot of contrast, and you choose to properly expose the bright parts, then the dark parts will be underexposed (e.g. completely black). On the other hand, if you choose to properly expose the dark parts, then the bright parts will be overexposed (e.g. burnt out, completely white). One way to get around this issue is to set your camera on a tripod and take multiple shots of the same scene, at the same aperture, but using different shutter speeds. Then, you use HDR software to combine the images on the computer – the software takes the best parts of each image and merges them into a single HDR image.
So, you might be wondering about the the PetaPixel HDR survey results, but I’m putting them at the bottom of this post, so that you can take a look at the HDR photos below, and make up your own mind about HDR before seeing what others have to say.
Personally, I absolutely love HDR. I use it very often for indoor architecture shots, but I also often use it for landscapes. I’ve picked out some of my favorites for you to look at (click “view with PicLens” for a slideshow).
So what do you think?
I’ve also picked out 2 of the photos above to show you the original photos that make up the HDR image, so you can compare.
Series 1: Liverpool Cathedral, England
I shot this series with a Canon EOS 5D camera with Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. At 55mm, I chose an ISO of 100 for the highest quality photos, and an aperture of f/11. I shot five images at shutter speeds of 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/15 seconds. I then used HDRSoft’s Photomatix software to create the final HDR image (6th image shown here). See how the first photo is the best for the detail inside the cathedral, but worst for the detail in the stained glass window, whereas the 4th or 5th photos are best for the window detail but worst for inside the cathedral? In truth, I probably didn’t need all those middle photos, but this is from my early HDR days…
Series 2: Franciscan Monastery, Washington, DC
This series is more recent, and I shot it with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, this time with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens. Again with an ISO 0f 100, an aperture of f/20 required long shutter speeds: 30, 20, 10 and 5 seconds plus a final shot of 1/2 second. Why the jump from 5 seconds to 1/2? You can see in the 5-second shot (4th photo) that most of the stained glass windows are still blown out. The 1/2 second shot gave me good detail in the windows. I combined the first 4 photos in Photomatix, then used Photoshop CS2 to layer mask in only the windows/glass from the 5th photo. Also, take a look at the middle of the very bottom of the image (under the stained glass). While the first photo is best exposed overall, it is overexposed in the middle bottom. The middle bottom, however, is best exposed in the 4th photo. In the HDR photo, both overall and bottom middle are just right.
By the way, you might hear people talk about using a single RAW image and processing it twice, once to adjust exposure of the darks, and one of the lights. While this could make the image better than the original, this is not true HDR. The point of HDR is to get a high quality end image. Data in the dark parts of an image are noisy and of lower quality. When you try too boost it and make it brighter, the quality of the photo just isn’t very good. With HDR, you are getting each tonal section at high quality with low noise.
So, have you made up your mind yet on what you think of HDR? Love it…enjoy it when done correctly…it’s usually done INcorrectly…shouldn’t be considered photography…hate it.
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
[MAKE UP YOUR MIND. SCROLL DOWN FOR PETAPIXEL HDR SURVEY RESULTS.]
So here they are!
- - Love it! (88 Votes)
- - Enjoy it when done correctly (378 Votes)
- - It’s usually done incorrectly (172 Votes)
- - Shouldn’t be considered photography (31 Votes)
- - What’s HDR? (26 Votes)
- - Hate it! (45 Votes)
Total Voters: 740
Leave your vote in the comments below!
Also, to download a pdf on buying fine art photography, click here.
I love it!
Nifty, thanks for posting HDR: Love it or hate it? « Inspired @ ireneabdouportraitsweddings.com!
Hi Michael,
I LOVE the skies in your HDR Wash Natl Cathedral shots! GORGEOUS! Plus, the food portfolio on your website is terrific. Great work! The food looks absolutely delicious, which is the goal right?!
I just got back from 12 days touring the parks of Southern Utah. I’m doing a photo-a-day blog post, though I kind of got behind b/c it’s a lot of work to shoot all day then come home, sort and process! Still have to do days 9-12. But half of what I’ve posted so far are HDR. Check these two out:
- http://ireneabdouportraitsweddings.com/blog/fine-art-photography/2009/12/31/utah-parks-road-trip-day-7-zion-national-park/
- http://ireneabdouportraitsweddings.com/blog/fine-art-photography/2010/01/01/utah-road-trips-day-8-zion-national-park-and-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument/
Irene
Hi Irene,
Great stuff, going to poke around your stuff some more –
I came over from meetup…. my 2 cents in late –
I like it – I actually got lucky this year on a cloudy day at the Cathedral
http://mpalmerphotography.blogspot.com/2009/02/hdr-washington-national-cathedral.html
http://mpalmerphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/work-in-progress.html
keep up the good work…
[...] Jonathan Haber: Great article, Irene. It's great to see several examples tha [...]
Great article, Irene. It’s great to see several examples that show before and after images. I enjoy the challenge of using the HDR technique in the post-processing of some of my images, just as photographers did in darkrooms many years ago. (HDR is not new … just relatively new and accessible in digital photography).
But, I think asking that surveying people and asking if they like HDR is like asking if they like photography. Or asking if they like noise reduction, or sharpening, etc. A better question might be “what kind of HDR do you like?” The possible answers could be “highly processed with saturated colors and super grainy effects”, “natural looking photos”, etc.
Here’s another way to look at it: But first take the following survey:
Do you like food?
- Love it!
- Enjoy it when done correctly
- It’s usually done incorrectly
- Shouldn’t be considered nutrition
- What’s food?
- Hate it!
Add me to the list of people that love HDR… especially for high contrast scenes. I’ve used it for landscapes (where it shines best if not overcooked) stills (great for surreal looks) and humans – great for creating a really gritty look.
It’s a great tool and quite easily applied even with 3 shots.
I don’t even bother saying if an image is HDR or not anymore. I have tried to seamlessly integrate it into my workflow. If an image has an extended dynamic range beyond my camera, I will use it. Sometimes I have results that look totally natural…and some are a bit “super-real.” Depends on what I am after. Sometimes I do this with multiple exposures…and other times it is with raw conversion within a file utilizing multiple iterations to achieve the exposure I intend. I think HDR works especially well for black and white images.
Thanks for the interesting review of HDR, Irene. Everyone should read it. HDR is a wonderful tool, in my opinion, but I think it’s best used when the viewer isn’t really aware of it, as in most of your examples. The more extreme HDR effects are an interesting novelty, and the grudge look is really effective with certain subjects, and I love to play with extreme effects myself, but long term I think the natural look has more staying power.