HDR Photography Introduction

 Not too long ago, photographers shooting people in front of a sunset had to decide what they wanted properly exposed. They could either have a great sunset with black silhouettes of the people, or they could have great smiles and a washed out sunset. A step up from that is the use of a flash unit to light up the people so that the sunset and the people both had pleasing features. Most would think that is the best there is, but wait, that's not all, you can also get HDR. High dynamic range, HDR, photography allows the viewer to see all parts of the image by creating an image where nothing is over or under exposed so much that it lacks detail. The result is unimagined before in photography. Notice in the image of the fire boat that the clouds have the same detail as if you were standing there looking at them. Notice the stern of the boat where it would normally be underexposed resulting in a very dark or black area. This particular image was a compilation of five exposures. One exposure was at the regular exposure while the others deviated from over to under exposed. All of the over or under exposed areas were thrown out of the equation and the result is a very detailed image that almost looks like a painting rather than an image captured by a camera.

This photograph of a Honolulu Fire Boat is one of my favorite. Like with a lot of my favorites, it was stumbled upon by accident. This serendipitous shot was taken after taking a long walk through downtown Honolulu and China Town. The harbor across the street from China Town is a little hard to get to since walking is the only way unless you have special parking privileges at the harbor. The sky was perfect, the water calm, and the lighting just right. I held the Nikon camera as steady as I could and shot five bracketed shots. Each shot was of a different exposure. I know the result appears to be a painting, but let me explain what you are seeing that makes it look that way. The five exposures are compiled and the parts that are over and under exposed are thrown out. The result is that all parts of the image have great exposure and the detail that would normally be washed out by light or blackened by the lack of light is not there. Painters sometimes do this as well, especially if they are there with the subject before them. They can see all of this detail, so why leave it out? As a photographer, I can see all of the detail, so why not include it in the final image?
     Notice the difference between the two images? The second image is one of the five images used and is the correct exposure. Because of the sun providing the lighting from above and slightly behind the boat, the stern is underexposed and the clouds are over exposed.