# What's the deal with HDR photography? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460 "2008-06-02T12:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/1 "2008-06-02T12:44:50Z")
While browsing Flickr for some new wallpapers, I notice a lot of landscapes/cityscapes are captured using “HDR photography”. Is this supposed to look good? All the photos look incredibly artificial, as if they’ve been rendered by a computer. I suppose it’s supposed to capture depth information left out of a normal photo, but all the examples I’ve seen look plain bizarre—incredibly foreboding skies, that look like nothing I’ve ever seen in nature, seem to be a common theme. Are there any good examples of HDR photography? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/2 "2008-06-02T12:53:23Z")
High Dynamic Range means you now have the ability to adjust exposure levels to unfamiliar degrees of over-tweaking. Like any newly accessible feature, it will be severely abused at first, but after a while it will settle down and be used creatively and carefully. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/3 "2008-06-02T13:26:36Z")
The idea of [HDR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging) photography is that, while our eyes can resolve a range of about 10 stops of light, cameras typically can only capture about 5 or 6. The solution to this nowadays is to capture a scene using 3, 5, or even seven different exposures, some underexposed, some over and one in the middle. Then, with the magic of the computer, combine those exposures together to show much more range than usual. Of coarse, as with any new technique, some people just take things too far. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/4 "2008-06-02T14:16:39Z")
[QUOTE=Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party] Is this supposed to look good? [/QUOTE] Did you never look at a Thomas Kinkade painting and think: “Why can’t I have a photo that looks like that?” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/5 "2008-06-02T14:44:15Z")
I agree. Most of the HDR you see out there on Flickr and similar sites is terribly artificial looking. But HDR is helpful, especially when you’re trying to burn in sky detail. I don’t use the technique often myself, but I will sometimes give myself an extra exposure, about two or three stops under my normal exposure, to help with eking out additional highlight detail. I use it in the sort of place where one would normally employ a neutral density graduated filter to help balance the sky exposure with the foreground exposure. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/6 "2008-06-02T15:23:50Z")
There’s lots of HDR blending software out there, most of which is junk. Poor software will leave halos around trees as it tries to blend the blown-out sky. Even the best HDR image can look somewhat artificial, but I’ve seen examples that work quite well, especially for indoor shots that have windows. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/7 "2008-06-03T10:15:26Z")
Ah so it isn’t only me. But are there any good examples of HDR being used well? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/8 "2008-06-03T10:34:59Z")
I think these are good. [http://www.erniea.com/journal/?p=756](http://www.erniea.com/journal/?p=756) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/9 "2008-06-03T17:52:08Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] The idea of [HDR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging) photography… [/QUOTE] WOW! I used to have to risk arrest to see things like that! Gotta second the Kincade comment, though. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/10 "2008-06-03T18:36:47Z")
One interesting thing about it is exposing the same thing in multiple light conditions. So you can get an image taken in the dark with incredible detail. Things like that. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/11 "2008-06-03T23:29:19Z")
At its most basic level, imagine taking a picture of a dark stone church against a bright sky with an interesting cloudscape. Either you expose for the church and the sky is blown out to white, or you expose for the clouds and the church is reduced to a silhouette. Or, you do both, and take two (or more) exposures and blend them. Done correctly, the scene will look much as it would to the naked eye (the eye and brain are very good at compensating for vastly different light levels). ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/12 "2008-06-03T23:43:36Z")
[QUOTE=mswas] One interesting thing about it is exposing the same thing in multiple light conditions. So you can get an image taken in the dark with incredible detail. Things like that. [/QUOTE] This also works well for [astrophotography](http://www.easyhdr.com/tutorial.php?spc=astro) ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/13 "2008-06-04T01:19:02Z")
I think [this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/dapatil/2549077451/in/pool-hdr) is a very good example of what HDR can (and should) do. Weird stuff like [this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottfw/2549029807/in/pool-hdr) is usually what people’s eyes and gets spread around (for better or for worse), but the intent is _not_ to make everything look like Gotham City on LSD. (Of course, this and all art is up to interpretation, but I think there’s a lot of people out there who’ve seen these cartoony HDR images that don’t even look like photos and have no idea that the idea is to make photos _more_ realistic than what they start out as.) ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/14 "2008-06-04T01:29:59Z")
[Here](http://www.flickr.com/groups/realhdr/) is a Flickr group devoted to realistic HDR images. A fair amount of them have details as to how the images were put together. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/15 "2008-06-04T13:56:10Z")
So how do you do it? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-hdr-photography/451460/16 "2008-06-04T13:59:40Z")
[This tutorial](http://adrianwarren.com/tutorials/HDR/) gives a pretty good explanation.