Written on Nov 6th, 2008 by Dave Adams
Posted In: Photoshop
How To Create Stunning HDR Photographs
Post Information and Notes
Tips on creating and tonemapping HDR photographs to procude stunning results.
- Level:Intermediate to Advanced
- Tools:Photoshop, Photomatix
- Time:2 hours
What is HDR Photography?
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and within photography refers to a process of combining multiple exposures of the same scene to enable the capture of both the darkest and lightest areas of a photograph.
While the human eye is very good at distinguishing between dark and light areas as it looks around, and adjusts the iris accordingly, camera sensors cannot adjust to compensate for an area in a scene that is both too bright (overexposed) and too dark (underexposed) all in one photograph.
To overcome this shortcoming, a system was devised where multiple exposures of the same scene could be combined into a single image, thus blanacing out any under or over exposed areas. With film photography, acheiving the same result would have meant doidging and burning a photograph to ensure an evenly exposed final image.
Once multiple exposures have been combined into a single HDR file, the image is then put through a tonemapping process, and it is this part of the process that most people think of when they talk about HDR photography. HDR photography has become so popular that it is no longer used to just compensate for over and under exposure issues, its actually used as an artistic technique to produce visually stunning digital artworks. In fact many of the HDR photographs that you will see on the web could have been taken with a single exposure with no tonemapping, as the dynamic range in the image is not that wide. however, the process of tonemapping can give a real lift to a photograph, and depending on the artist the effects can be anything from mild to wild.
The following HDR image is one I created from 9 exposures, tonemapped and then applied a Topaz filter to. I will talk a little bit about the best way of taking photographs for generating a HDR image, and give a little more detail on the way the following photograph was processed. It should give you some idea of whats possible with the software thats available today. I would put this in the medium-mild category - beyond photorealistic but not over the top.
