HDR Photography

Seattle Photographs

HDR Photography

What is HDR photography?

HDR, which stands for High Dynamic Range, is a process that enables a photographer to create beautiful and surreal looking photographs. In some cases, the photographs can look like illustrations or even art work.

How are HDR photographs created?

The photographer takes multiple photographs of the same subject, but adjusts the EV (exposure value) so that each photographs records different amounts of light. Typically this means one photograph is taken with the correct exposure, one is over exposed, and one is underexposed. By doing this, details that would normally be lost in the dark areas can be made visible. Likewise, details that would be lost in the very bright areas of the photograph can also be seen. These multiple photographs are then combined into a single image, which is further processed to enhance color, contrast, and saturation to yield an amazing final image.

This photograph is correctly exposed for the upper part of the locomotive. However, the lower part is too dark and the clouds are too bight. This is due to the inherent limitation in the range of brightness that a camera can record in a single scene.

This photograph is over exposed, but notice how the detail in the wheels and track are now visible.

This photograph is underexposed, but now the details in the clouds can be seen.

In this image, all three of the above photographs are combined into a single image, and you can clearly see details in what used to be the darkest and brightest areas of the scene.

This is HDR photography!

Examples of normal and HDR photographs