I keep learning as I further explore HDR or High Dynamic Range photography. I have had a few things trigger some more thoughts recently about HDR. I don’t use it all the time, but I really like having it as an option. I was looking at a relatively new book of Ansel Adams photography (400 Photos) — a fascinating look at the work over his life. I saw a couple of photos that just hit me — they were the black-and-white equivalent of HDR. One was a scene of a backlit woods with sunlit grass on the ground and dark tree trunks. Yet Adams held detail throughout the scene because of the way he applied technology (exposure and chemistry) specifically to the conditions of the scene (he generally overexposed such shots and underdeveloped them, plus did added work when he made the print).
I can guarantee that scene could not be captured in color with such detail straight from any camera, film or digital. Yet, by doing exactly what Adams did, changing exposure (in the case of color, making several different exposures) and processing uniquely (using HDR software), we can now capture scenes like this that were simply not possible in color before. Now some people say, but … these are multiple exposures. I have to ask — if I photograph a non-moving scene, what is the difference in that scene if I took three 1/4 second photos compared to one 1-second photo? The time involved is essentially the same, nothing has moved. Yet the 1-second photo is probably a “lie” in the sense that it does not truly represent nature; the combination of the three shots has the potential to more accurately show the truth of the scene. Yet I know there are still folks who think somehow that there is a “right” use of technology that is more important than the correct and accurate capture of a natural scene.
There is no question that HDR is an evolving technology. I really did not like Adobe’s implementation of it in Photoshop (and I still don’t care for it). I first really got excited about its possibilities with Photomatix HDR, but that software has some issues, including the tendency to oversaturate colors (I would often go back to Photoshop to tone down the colors). There is an interesting bit of software called LR/Enfuse (discussed in another blog entry) that does a nice job of creating a long-tonal range image from several shots while working from Lightroom — it gives more natural colors than Photomatix.
I just started working with a new program called Essential HDR that really seems to do the best job in giving accurate, natural colors from the process. I had never heard of them until they sent me a note asking me to try out their new software. I love trying new stuff, but I have no interest and little time to deal with software that does not work. Essential HDR does work and it is very easy to use, works fast and the results look very, very good. I still like the workflow of LR/Enfuse with Lightroom, but I actually think Essential HDR gives a little better results. The website for Essential HDR is at www.imagingluminary.com.
My point is that it is possible to use technology to interpret our world accurately and naturally and not force our audiences to think that nature only looks a certain way based on how cameras see it (I find it fascinating that people expect sunrise and sunset photos to look a certain way that is often unrelated to the reality of the scene — this is because people were “trained” by publications to see these conditions as rendered by Kodachrome and Velvia, films that were not designed to give accurate colors at those times of day).
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on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 8:31 am and is filed under Digital Photo Techniques, Photoshop, Photoshop techniques, landscape photography, nature photography.
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I just started working with a new program called Essential HDR that really seems to do the best job in giving accurate, natural colors from the process. I had never heard of them until they sent me a note asking me to try out their new software. I love trying new stuff, but I have no interest and little time to deal with software that does not work. Essential HDR does work and it is very easy to use, works fast and the results look very, very good. I still like the workflow of LR/Enfuse with Lightroom, but I actually think Essential HDR gives a little better results. The website for Essential HDR is at www.imagingluminary.com.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Rob,
I already left a similar note on your other site, but I wanted to point out that Photomatix now has a beta tie-in to Lightroom, “Lightroom Export Plug-in” available at their site on the page for Photomatix Pro 3.1 Beta 8. Now I’m going to check out Essential HDR.
December 31st, 2008 at 5:50 am
Shame that Essential HDR isn’t available for Mac OS.
I’ll have to stick with Photomatrix Pro.