I recently set out on photo safari to experiment with HDR photography. HDR photography is used to create a higher dynamic range than can be achieved in a single exposure of film or digital. With HDR, detail can be seen in areas that are usually too dark or too light to show up in a typical photograph. The resulting HDR photograph looks more like the way our eyes might see it.
HDR is done by taking at least three images of the exact same scene at different exposures and then overlaying them to create a single image.
The images here were taken between 7:30 pm and 9:00 pm on October 15th, 2009 at the Square in Marietta, Georgia. The equipment I used was a Nikon D100 with a 30-year old Nikon E-Series 28mm f/2.8 lens. I used my old Tiltall tripod.
I only used three separate exposures to create each of these HDR images. One image is shot at the correct exposure, one at two stops under, and one at two stops over. I used the Essential HDR freeware to process these images.
Exposure for the three images above (from left to right) was ISO 200, f/8 at 1/4 second, 1-second, and 4-seconds.
The mistake that most photographers seem to make when using HDR is taking the effect way too far past reality. As you can see from the HDR Group on Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/, some images can come out very fake looking so they don’t look like real photographs anymore. The goal of HDR is to create an image that looks more like what you saw instead of the way photographs usually look.
One difficulty (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) of night time HDR photography is that people and moving cars almost disappear. This scene above had about 20 people walking across the street on the other side from left to right.
During this series of exposures in front of the window at Eddie’s Trick Shop, an entire family including a lady pushing a stroller walked between me and the window. You can see a faint ghost trail.
The image above is uninteresting, but it shows the power of HDR. The image in the center of the three images above would be closest to the “correct” exposure for a single image. You can see that the brick wall to the left is faded into darkness, and the “Cool Beans” sign is very over exposed. Combining the three images brought out the detail in the dark areas and brought down the overexposed highlights in the sign.
Ballet school. The girls managed to stand still long enough to show up in the photo. I wanted to get more exposures of this scene, but I was worried that people would think I was a creep taking photos of little ballerinas with a camera on a tripod.
Edgar Allen Scarecrow.
The scene above had a group of about 25 people walking through during the exposures. Outdoor dining at Hemingway’s pub.
Next Steps
I’m going to try some daylight HDR. Shorter exposures typically used in daylight will keep people from evaporating. It might be an interesting effect to see some pedestrians showing up three times in one HDR photo.
Some Really Good HDR Photographers
Some skilled photographers such as Jeffrey Jacobs are using HDR in commercial photography without going over the line into fakey. Some of his images are actually multiple exposures shot on one frame of film. Here are links to some professionals using HDR in an effective way.
Here are some links to some realistic HDR images.
Jeffrey Jacobs: http://www.jeffreyjacobsphoto.com/home.asp
Colby Brown: http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/portfolio/high-dynamic-range-%28hdr%29_9.html
A random good example of HDR technique:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcdead/3713208200/sizes/o/
A random really bad example of HDR technique:
Ahh, it is Marietta Square eh? I was wondering where you were shooting. Very cool shots! The first shot reminds me of Van Gogh's Starry Night. WAY COOL! Thanks for sharing :-) Kitty
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