Skip to main content

High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range other wise known as HDR, is a process that is applied to the image by the camera to compensate for colour loss, it gives an image a higher Dynamic range.

Below you can see the effect in practise, The picture on the left shows how a camera usually captures an image and the image on the right shows a picture with HRD enabled. 


The way HDR works is by combining three or more photos, one with normal exposure, one over exposed image and one under exposed image. Depending on the lighting of the area it can make an image look more blown out. HDR is very useful in low light areas. If the camera is unable to take a normally exposed image it will instead combine the images to create an effect of normal lighting.

Before taking a photo with HDR enabled you have to remove any movement from the shot otherwise the image will come out blurry and you will get a ghosting effect. Some advanced forms of HDR are able to to combat the effect of ghosting.

To take a good HDR photo focus, aperture, ISO, and white balance must stay the same. For professionals that have the ability to take a photos in RAW they usually don't like the effect that HDR creates, With the ability to customise an image completely by using RAW a photographer would rather be able to have 100% control over the image.

Popular posts from this blog

How sensors work in Digital Photography

When you press the shutter release button the shutter is lifted and light is allowed into the camera and hits the sensor. This is the way it worked in traditional camera's aswell but instead of a sensor the light would be projected onto film. There are two types of sensors CCD (Charged coupled device) and CMOS (Complementary metal oxide semiconductor). Both sensors measure light and convert the analog signal into a digital signal which is then saved to the camera's SD card. Advantages of CCD over CMOS: CCD sensors create high-quality, low noise images.  CCD sensors give greater sensitivity and fidelity. CCD have 100 times more power over CMOS sensors. CCD require a specialized assembly line to be made. Advantages of CMOS over CCD: CMOS sensors are more susceptible to noise. CMOS have a lower light sensitivity compared to CCD. CMOS consume a lower amount of power compared to CCD. CMOS sensors are easy to manufacture and are therefore cheaper to be made...
Read more

Exposure in Digital Photography - Lighting of the Scene

Exposure in Photography is determined by the Shutter Speed, the aperture of the lens, the sensitivity of the ISO and the lighting of the scene. In this post I'm going to talk about the Lighting of the Scene. Great cinematography is all about preparation, and few aspects of the craft require as much preparation as lighting. You can arrange the lights in such a way as to leave darkness between the area illuminated by the backlight and the area illuminated by the fill light, depending on how moody you want the shot to be. This tends to work very well, although even the moodiest films tend to avoid leaving dark shadows on the faces of female talent. The film still shown above is from “Schindler’s List” and is a good example of this technique. You should light your film or video shot by shot. This means that when you relocate the camera to shoot a different angle, the lights must be moved as well to ensure the subject is always lit correctly. This is partl...
Read more

Macro Photography

There are a few ways that Macro Photography can be defined, Micro-Photography, Macro-Photography and Close up photography. Micro-Photography and Macro-photography usually refer to the same thing. Companies such a Nikon use the term macro and micro on the same lense, whereas Cannon calls them macro lenses. Below is a screen grab from Nikons own site which show them using both terms. What does the terms macro/micro refer to? The term Macro means big and the term Micro means small. If the item you are taking a picture of is small and you want it to come out as larger in the picture, then you are taking a macro shot of a micro subject. Macro photography is generally done with a dedicated lense which you change out on your DSLR camera (Such as the nikon lense shown above). Below is an example of the detail that you can achieve from a macro lense. The photo below is an example of a close up photograph which could have been taken with a regular lense or a macro lense fro...
Read more