First attempt at HDR

Posted by Giya (Cincinnati, United States) on 26 February 2008 in Cityscape & Urban.

So I purchased Photomatix from HDR Soft to try my hand at some HDR photography. Here's the before and after comparison on my flickr account.

Before HDR processing
After HDR processing

HDR stands for High Dynamic Response. Basically it is a process that can be applied to an image, or multiple images, to make it seem more dynamic, and more life like.

The human eye can detect and process a difference in contrast of about 100,000 to 1. A great example is a bright sunny scene with some deep shadows. When we are looking out at a scene like that in nature our eyes can see all of the glorious highlights from the sun and still all the details in the shadows.

Most cameras only detect a contrast difference of about 1,000 to 1. So, HDR techniques combine multiple images shot with different exposures to capture the details of darkest parts of the scene, without overexposing the highlights. Likewise, it captures the highlights of the scene without underexposing the shadows. You get the best of both worlds!

Listed on Photoblogs.org