If you have ever noticed the photography of Trey Ratcliff, Click here, or other photography you have admired, you may have realized that much of the outstanding work done today is with H.D.R. photography. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It’s probably why you are interested in getting started on your own. If so, you are in the right place because about 15 minutes from now, you will be far more knowledgable than you are in this moment. Lets get started.
3 Sets of HDR exposures stitched together to make an HDR Panoramic
Theoretically, if the sensor in our cameras had the “range” of seeing shades of light as well as our eyes do, we may not ever need to pursue this, but cameras don’t. Brilliant programmers working with Photographers have created software for “merging” images together keeping the dark parts of some and the light parts of others, creating a single image with both light and dark parts in one image.
That’s HDR. If I could explain it yet a slightly different way, I would say that HDR photos are very much what the photographer “saw” when he snapped the shutter. At first, when experimenting with HDR, you can get decent results but GREAT results come over time after you’ve learned how the HDR process works.
Knowing how HDR works lets you “pre-visualize” a final image. It’s because you know what will happen when you combine these images, you can select places to photograph which will let you express yourself even more so with this tool. Not all my images are HDR and while many daytime images are, there are many that are just not appropriate to be processed in that way. Besides talent, the best photographers have options. I want to give you one more option for making a great photograph.
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