Content including photographs are Copyright © 2009 - Don & Linda Gilmore
So what is it? And once you know - how do you acquire it. Of course it's simple, software! It's like medicine today; there's a pill for everything -- there's a software for everything too!
Everyone has taken a photograph that lacks in high dynamic range. You took a photo looking out from a nice place in the shadows - right into a bright sunny area. So you end up with a choice -- one; you get the shadowed area nice an bright and everything beyond that in the sunny area has all the highlights blown out - (
washed out to the point they lose detail and are almost white
). Or you get the sunny area normal (
not blown out
) with all the right colors and brightness -- but now the shadowed area is too dark and you've lost detail and it almost looks like it's night time there. High Dynamic Range -- has the best of both worlds, nice rendition of the sunny area and a well lit shadow area. So how's this possible.
How's this possible: -- two ways that might work for you. One, use a flash or studio lighting and meter for the exterior lighting. Two, use one of the new D-SLR's like a Nikon D3x which will give you fairly good high dynamic range right out of the camera. Both of these options are going to cost you a lot of money and Nikon will still need some help.
Who needs it anyway: -- the average enthusiast photographer can benefit from high dynamic range and a professional certainly can. For example; a photographer that works for a real estate agency. This would be especially beneficial when photographing the inside of a home. You could control the blown highlights in the windows. Normally the inside of the home is well lit, and windows are blown out (no detail) -- HDR will help immensely with this situation and others!
Here's a photograph showing what an average D-SLR camera will do in a situation like this. Not bad for the camera metering the scene and giving us an average of the shadow areas and the well lit backyard. NOTICE on all 3 photos here what the Exposure Compensation set by the camera was. This one is zero, no plus or minus. These 3 photographs were taken using the camera's exposure bracketing system.
Now if your not familiar with exposure bracketing this is the time to learn, if the final outcome interests you at all. You could take 3 different exposures by adjusting the exposure compensation or just by using the manual mode and changing the exposure for each shot to a plus 2 and a minus 2. However the exposure bracketing system is much easier as it takes only one shot (that's right just one) and adds the other two. So what this does is make it easier for you; you can take a photograph without a tripod. With the other way mentioned above, you'll have to have a tripod so all the shots are oriented identically -- of course you have to change the exposure to get the same results as bracketing with your camera.
This one to the left is a plus 2, as you can tell, and has blown highlights.
Now you should be able to tell that this one is under-exposed. Minus 2 EV. The interior of the patio is too dark, but the sky looks nice and in fact the backyard rock base even looks good. The object here will be to blend all three of these to get a photograph that has all the desired parts of each separate photograph.
I didn't mention this yet -- we're going to be working with 2 different softwares for this. Both work and can do the job, but one of them stands out in my opinion for having better control over the results and a better output to the final images. So let's see which one you like?
See below for the results!
Now there are quite a few software's out there that will give you a HDR image. Some like Photomatix are expensive ($99 in 12-09) and don't have as many options as one of the ones below. We were looking for a software that was reasonably priced and easy to use. There are some free ones available but none that in my honest opinion were worth mentioning here. Now for some of you that have Photomatix and like it, great, if your used to using it then hang onto it, I'm not trying to talk you out of it. This is for first time buyers, users looking for an honest review of HDR software. In my opinion Photomatix just didn't work as well with as many options.
Media Chance HDR Their Web Site
Cost as of 11/15/09 ($55.00)
We'll start off first by telling you about the 2 different softwares we compared here and giving you a link to their respective web sites so you can try them for yourself. The first one is Media Chance HDR and their trial program doesn't expire after a certain amount of time -- and it outputs full sized images! This is a real plus, as you can see exactly what the software is giving you in a full sized image. This software by the way, is my pick as the best one. A couple of other reasons this one appeals to me -- it has more options (many more) than the other software; thus it's a little harder to learn, but still not too hard. And the results are just short of amazing. It also works with just one single image; see below for more info on that option.
Essentials HDR Their Web Site Cost as of 11/15/09 ($48.99)
This software - Essentials HDR is easy to use, it's more like a beginners software. If your using an imaging program then this will be simple to learn to use. It will also be limited in it's controls and abilities to make the most of your photographs. It does work, but doesn't have the control that you'll need in some instances. It also has a 30 day limit on the trial version; also having a limit to the size of the output images, both in physical size and file size. So it's harder to tell what your really accomplishing with it. Any time you reduce the size of an image it will look different, mostly better than what can be determined at full size (100%). But the trial is free, so try them both and make a decision based on what your personal needs and abilities are.
All the Photographs below have links to ENLARGE them. I strongly recommend you use them.
We'll pick up where we left off above with the shots taken under the patio. These were exactly the same photos used, just different software applied to get the end result. Look at them closely and then by all means ENLARGE them for a more detailed look. Sorry, but posting full sized images is not possible as we have to consider people with slower Internet connections too!
This one was enhanced in Media Chance HDR; it clearly shows the advantages of this software. The dark shadowed areas are light, the sky is bluer, the greens in the trees and palms are greener and rock on the ground is darker. This is what your eye would see in this scene. Of course there are options available that let you can make adjustments to enhance this even further.
This one was enhanced in Essentials HDR; it did work and shows a definite improvement over the way the camera captured the scene. And like I explained above it's easy to use. But upon closer examination you'll see the washed out look of the rock on the ground and notice the green is paler in the greenery and sky is not as blue. Not bad, but not quite what your eye would see.
The above software renditions were done with 3 images that were bracketed in the camera. For more information please see the web site links above for more on the intricacies of the softwares and how to use them.
Now; what if you have an image that you didn't bracket? It's a favorite shot you took but it needs lighter shadow areas without blown out highlights. Well with the Mediachance software you have the option to do a Pseudo HDR image enhancement, and it really works great.
See below --------
This is the original photograph taken in Cathedral State Park, Nevada. It's a nice photo but lacks in the HDR department. As you can see by the enhanced one below, the original lost a lot of detail in the rocks close to the camera and even farther back in mountains. This was shot in Aperture Priority at f11, 1/350 sec. 17mm.
This is the enhanced version of a single jpeg image that only took a couple of minutes to fix in Mediachance HDR. I don't care how you come to this end result (using masks, etc.) it'll take you longer to make the masks then it does to use this software and you can't get a better result. You should really try this software!
The user's interface is very user friendly on both of these softwares and they will help to make you a better photographer. If you like one of them then pay for it and you won't have their name on the bottom of the photographs. Hopefully this helped you to understand what HDR software does and how it can help you with your photography hobby or with your profession! This is one of the best things to come along since digital cameras!
