High Dynamic Range (HDR) – A Fad or a Growing Trend?
Dec 9, 2008 Photography
HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography has grown wildly in popularity over the past few years. With the drop in prices of dSLR cameras, the ability to take the same photo at different exposures has allowed for a unique effect, that allows a wider dynamic range.
However, as the trend spreads, it also draws critique from many photographers as being “fake” and not capturing the true essence of the photograph. Critics argue that the art of photography is capturing a moment in time at a given exposure, and that the inability to see all of the dynamic range is part of that art.
What do you think? Is HDR just another fad among photographers that will soon be history? Or is HDR an artform that is here to stay? Let us know in the comments section. Also, if you enjoy the post, submit it to your favorite social networking site. It’s really appreciated.
Definition and History:
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.
High dynamic range imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff’s detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid 1940s. The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993, and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995. In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec.
This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures. With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy-to-use desktop software, the term HDR is now popularly used to refer to this process. This composite technique is different from (and may be of lesser or greater quality than) the production of an image from a single exposure of a sensor that has a native high dynamic range. Tone mapping is also used to display HDR images on devices with a low native dynamic range, such as a computer screen.
Here’s some tutorials for the interested photographers, along with some inspiration for you at the bottom.
Tutorials:
Ultimate HDR Guide
Step By Step HDR Tutorial
New & Improved HDR Tutorial (2008)
HDR Workflow
Landscape HDR Tutorial
HDR from 1 JPEG
HDR Workshop
Inspiration:
Icarus Undone by Peter Vanallen
Balloon Dream by Iceman
Basilicia del Pilar by Paulo Brandao
Something To See Here by shoebappa
Shores on the Road to Hope by warzauwynn
Gravel by rajvimal
L'Oceanogràfic País Valencià by Joanot
The Veins of Bangkok by StuckInCustoms
A Postcard for the Margarita Island by Atrium09
Dranesville Tavern by Gregory Hugh Davidson
My Own Peace of Mind by Equinoxe7
Tags: Array, Art Of Photography, Artform, Charles Wyckoff, Comments Section, Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics Community, Dark Areas, Digital Cameras, Digital Images, Dslr Cameras, Hdr Image, Hdri, High Dynamic Range, High Dynamic Range Photography, Image Processing, Intensity Levels, Mathematical Theory, Mid 1940s, Moment In Time, Paul Debevec, Pictures Of Nuclear Explosions, Range Image, Social Networking Site, Tone Mapping, True Essence
December 9th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
HDR – A Fad or a Growing Trend? | Presidia Creative…
HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography has grown wildly in popularity over the past few years. With the drop in prices of dSLR cameras, the ability to take the same photo at different exposures has allowed for a unique effect, that allows a wider dynami…
December 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I wouldn’t say that it’s a trend or even a fad. It’s a technique, a way to photographically capture things differently.
But, to answer your question a growing trend is what it appears to be
December 12th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I like this ne trend of HDR, you really can use this very good for landscape pictures
December 15th, 2008 at 3:42 am
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December 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
It is a trend, but I am somehow troubled by it. To me the images lack something seen in standard photography. They lack a certain soul.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
HDR is really neat for nature and landscape, but I tend to agree with Dan, it sometimes ruins the art of photography.
Thanks for commenting guys!
December 18th, 2008 at 6:22 am
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Glad you find it helpful Edward, if you have any requests for articles you’d like to see, let me know.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Hey! I like your post
December 19th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Thanks, glad you like it!
December 20th, 2008 at 7:52 am
HDR isn´t a tend.
Yes, for some people it looks like because it´s “new” but if you look closer at the technique behind you´ll see that this is the future of photography. One day consumer cameras will capture the big dynamic range of hdr in one shot. It´s just more light & color information. The creative part is how you tonemap the foto. As you know all examples above aren´t 32bit hdr images, just 8bit compressed and tonemapped jpegs.
But sooner or later True-Color-Hdr-Displays will be affordable. Then you´ll be able to see the massiv tonal range of the images without tonemapping.
By the way HDR is very important for fotorealistic cgi-renderings. Equirectangular hdr spheres are used to global-illuminate scenes and models.
Sorry for my bad english.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Hi world! In my nobble opinion i think HDR is a new technique to take photos, it’s like the “future” in photography. If you do not overload HDR-strength and use wisely the controls you can create a unique photo much realistic than the same one frame photo. It is not a fad, its the future of capturing and displaying the light
December 30th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
That’s an interesting take, but it also depends on people not overdoing it. Certainly HDR can make photographs even more spectacular, but it sometimes feels like photographers are compensating for a poor initial shot by shooting in HDR. That’s just my opinion though, so what do you think?
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
does this strategy work?
April 1st, 2009 at 1:45 am
Thanks for linking to my HDR from 1jpg tutorial!
Very nice complete post with all those links!
I am of the opinion that HDR will be ONE of the ways to make photos in the future. It is very likely that cameras will have a HDR setting, or that all compact cameras will eventually ONLY be able to make HDR photos, where everything is automatically exposed correctly. Professional photographers may still want to use non HDR cameras as they want to capture silhouettes or overexposed areas/images. At the moment making a good HDR still depends a lot on skill and experience in photo editing, but in the future I believe that wont be neccesary anymore.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Always good quality info from this site!
June 9th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
“True” HDR was actually invented in the late 1800s, early 1900s. The early colour photographs of Russia have vastly superior dynamic range than Kodacolor-style cameras. Critics are either ignorant of the history of photography or jealous that their ultra-expensive LDR cameras aren’t capable of matching the quality of turn-of-the-20th-century photographs.
And can something that has lasted over twice as long as the entire history of LDR colour photography be considered a “fad”?
To produce cheap HDR, all you need is a black-and-white CCD device capable of more than 8 bits per pixel, a pinwheel with multiple monochrome filters (one for each colour plane) and a really good shutter. In short, a high-speed version of the original 1890s colour photographic system.
(Cheap, but not very practical. It would be almost impossible to hold your hands still enough to use, the mechanical components would be prone to failure, and it would be next-to-impossible to capture a moving image of any speed.)
Practical HDR tends to use 3CCD, but you need very good optics for the image to be any good and optics are expensive. To get the prisms and lenses to be flawless enough to be any good is not cheap.
However, most of that is moot, as virtually nobody uses JPEG2000 or OpenEXR (the only compressed image formats capable of supporting 32bpp HDR) and nobody can afford the memory requirements of a RAW image at 32bpp or 48bpp. Oh, an no compressed image format exists at all for 48bpp. Nor are there any HDR monitors capable of displaying them.
If you can’t view, share or print the photographs, then whether the camera can actually take them is immaterial. What’s the good of an image you can’t use?
(Ok, there’s one exception. If you’re an archaeologist or an astronomer, you may well want to take a full 48bpp HDR photo but only display a fragment of the dynamic range at a time. Not much of a market, admittedly, but it exists.)