HDR Photography Online

Have you ever been at a special place and grabbed your camera, attempting to preserve the beautiful scene, only to get home and view a photo that is really only a shell of what you saw?

Your eyes are very sensitive to light and intensity, but your camera is not. As a result, the image you take home, in most cases, just isn't exactly as you saw it.

Now though, through a special process of using multiple exposures of the same scene and special computer software, HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography can help you make your photos more like what your eyes saw.

Read on to learn more about HDR Photography, and, to see some amazing photos taken using this special (and easy to learn!) process.

HDR photography is the process of taking several photos, of the same scene, at different exposure rates, then putting them together via a computer program.  This allows the photographer to bring out more of the true visual dynamics of a scene, unlike any one photograph from a camera could ever possibly do.

Using these different exposure rates helps to increase the exposure rate to the level our eyes are used to.  The human eye sees at approximately 14 exposure values, while a camera can usually hold about 8. Obviously, there is a disparity here.

The idea of HDR photography is to increase the exposure value of a camera by layering these multiple photos taken at different exposure rates to create one new photo with an increased exposure value....which means, the photograph looks more realistic to the human eye because it's closer to the exposure value we're used to seeing in our day to day lives.

The main idea behind HDR photography is an old one. In the mid 1800s a photographer named Gustave Le Gray was taking photos of the ocean. He couldn't get the sea and the sky to appear clearly in the same photo because the luminosity range was too extreme. There were no current methods he could use to fix this problem, so, he used an idea of his own. He took one negative of the sky, another of the sea at a longer exposure rate, and then, he put them together to make one photograph.

It wasn't until the late 1930s early 40s though, when Charles Wyckoff was photographing the test explosions of the Atom bomb that anything more came of Mr. Le Gray's initial discovery. To help capture the realism of the event, Wyckoff used several photographs of the same scene taken at different exposure rates to create one single image, instead of just the two negatives Le Gray used.

The end result is iconic (Wyckoff's Atom bomb photos are the ones published on the Time Magazine cover). And because he used more exposure rates, the dynamic range of the photo was increased even further than Le Gray's original, and this allowed for more realistic photo than was possible before.

This discovery went a long way in advancing the concept and use of HDR photography, but, there was another gap, around 40+ years or so, until anything new would happen to further the photographic technique,

Then, in the 1980s and 90s the idea of high dynamic resolution was applied to film. This allowed many new and different things to be done with movies and has continued to help create all kinds of innovations in motion pictures.

As time has continued, the popularity of digital cameras and computers allowed HDR photography to expand it's possibilities even further. There are amazing things being done with this technology (as you can see here!) and people continue to advance the HDR software and techniques available. And, because of the increased accessibility of both computers and digital cameras, the possibilities for HDR photography are seemingly endless!

If you're ready to delve into HDR photography now there are a few things you'll need to make that happen.

A Digital Camera

First, of course, is a digital camera. I'm guessing you could make it would with a film camera and then getting your photos processed onto a disc, but, it's infinitely easier to just have a digital camera to start with.

A Tripod

Next you'll need to get yourself a sturdy tripod. A tripod is essential because you've got to capture the exact same image for HDR to really work well. If you hand slips a bit, or you move just a touch to the right or left, your picture will not be able to be a true HDR image.

With a tripod though, you can set your camera on the scene you want, and take the proper number of exposures you need all without your camera moving an inch.

HDR Software

Without HDR software, HDR photography would not be as accessible as it is; it would still be something only a skilled photographer could master. Currently though there are several different software programs that will help you create HDR images.

The main favorite right now is Photomatix Pro, by HDRsoft, and Adobe's PhotoShop program has a plugin to work with HDR photos. Many also like Silver Efex Pro for working with black and white images.

And Last but Not Least, a Beautiful, Still, Scene

Don't get me wrong. The scene can have some moving elements in it, like clouds, water, or cars. But, the main object of the scene itself must be stationary. So, for example, you can create an amazing HDR image from a forest scene with several large trees and a moving waterfall, but, trying to photograph a group of marathon runners or horses running isn't going to turn out well.

Once you've got everything you need, head out and take a whole bunch of pictures. After all, that's what HDR is really all about....taking beautiful, creative, realistic, yet artistic photographs.