I’ve been testing out some new HDR techniques and software…

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It is a post-processing of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed.

Cameras, by their basic-machine-nature, are very good at capturing “images”, lines, shadows, shapes — but they are not good at capturing a scene the way the mind remembers and maps it. When you are actually there on the scene, your eye travels back and forth, letting in more light in some areas, less light in others, and you create a “patchwork-quilt” of the scene.

HDR is a technique that is still in it infancy but is becoming utilised increasingly in the Real Estate industry because it enables an image to show a low light room and a high light view through the windows. I have been playing around with it in a simple form while shooting houses in NZ but I’m curious to see what else I can do with it, particularly with action shots.

Here is my first non real estate effort, it is a combination of 6 images from before sunset through to almost pitch black night. I should point out that sometimes HDR images can look pretty ridiculous and over tweaked, but I have not cranked up the colours in this image. It is simply the light from the different images all layered on top of each other.

More coming soon…