Grand Canyon at Bright Angel Lodge - HDR
HDR Photography, an acronym for ‘High Dynamic Range’ is a photography process where multiple exposures are captured, aligned and merged into a single image that enables a much wider range of colors and tonality. The technique allows a greater dynamic range of luminance between the light and dark areas of an image and it means you can process an image that accurately represents the image you saw in your head when composing your shot.
My view is that nothing beats a well composed image that uses great lighting (natural or studio lighting) and requires very little or no post production. However, HDR is one technique that I’ve been wanted to explore and learn more about as part of my photography learning and I recently picked up some Nik Software to try out.
HDR has become a very popular technique over the past few years with the increased popularity of DSLR’s and especially with auto bracketing features where several photo’s can literally be taken in seconds. Creating HDR images is difficult to do from one image, so HDR images typically combine a series 3 or more photographs taken at different exposures (under exposed, normal, and over exposed). It is possible to take one exposure use software (such as Nik Software HDR EFEX Pro or Photomatix Pro) to automatically recreate 3 exposures, which is exactly what the above photo is. On this post is a non-HDR image from the same trip for a comparisons.
To some photographers, HDR photography helps the photos look more “dramatic” while others see them as being very overdone, or overly processed and generally looking too chromatic. Just take one look at the popular HDR group on Flickr and you’ll see there are lots of folks working with HDR.
For me, some of the reasons I enjoy certain HDR photography is that I feel it helps certain elements ‘pop’ while creating a unique representation of the scene I saw in my mind’s eye that day.
[Canon SD750; 5mm; f/8; 1/80; ISO 80] Single image post-processed with Nik Software HDR EFEX Pro.
