HDR Images - (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE)

The snap below was taken and processed in January of this year. For those of you in Kuwait who have visited the Gulf Run car show at the 360 Mall, I’m sure you have spotted this beauty. Although it was on display at one corner of the show, this model attracted the most attention especially the young & avid car enthusiasts.

Yes, that’s the 2012 Chevy Camaro! Obviously modified but, nonetheless, an amazing work of art. The intricacy of the design on the car and the combination of Blue and Black made it stand out against its rivals.

This photograph was done using HDR (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE). OK! I know for those of you who are not into photography, this might seem a little too technical. So I’m taking the liberty of explaining what HDR is all about.

In simple terms, an HDR image is a blend of photographs taken at two or more light exposures and merged together using post-processing software (eg. Photoshop, Photomatrix, etc). This creates a highly dynamic range between the lighter and darker portions of the image.

In order to understand how HDR works, you need to first understand what ‘Exposure’ is and how to adjust the exposure setting of a camera.

I would simply define ‘Exposure’ as the amount of light absorbed by the image sensor when the shutter closes.

All DSLRs and, now-a-days, some of the ‘Point and Shoot’ cameras allow you to view the exposure meter on the display. As shown below, the higher the exposure, the brighter the image & vice versa. Unfortunately not all ‘Point and Shoot’ cameras offer you this option to change the exposures settings. Under the manual mode, the exposure settings of a DSLR camera can be adjusted to click at minimum 3 exposures, also known as Bracketing. Below is a shot of the exposure meter showing exposure set at 3 points.

 

For example, if you set the exposure at -1, 0, +1, (as shown in the markings) and click thrice, the first image will be captured at -1 exposure which is darker, the second image will be captured at 0 or normal exposure, and the third will be at a brighter exposure of +1

Now that you’ve got your images at different exposures, you only have to merge them on your HDR software and Viola! You’ve just made your first HDR image.

HDR image processing softwares are not free and don’t come cheap, but I’m sure most of you know how to get your hands on them. Do not download pirated software, It’s ILLEGAL!!

HDR imaging is a vast subject and I have tried to put as much of necessary information as I could in this post. We will definitely get back to this subject again another day.

Savio A. D'souza

-SnapThat