HDR tips
3. Two important scene indicators of High Dynamic Range.
The Sun - Compose any landscape or cityscape image with the sun in the scene and you’ll have High Dynamic Range. Start thinking in terms of 7 or 9 images at 1EV spacing.
Cave Effect - The cave effect is created when sunlight is blocked from all directions except the one you are looking. Of course the severity of the cave effect will vary based on it’s depth and overall % of the composed scene it occupies. The important thing is to be aware that you are dealing with High Dynamic Range and take 5,7,9 images at 1EV spacing. Here are a few examples: Store front where the interior is visible, tunnel entrances, the local vegetable/fruit stand, natural cave openings, and underside of a bridge with lots of I beams. You get the idea, take a moment and try to think of a few yourself.
2. The HDR knowledge base tells us that dynamic range can be as high as 1,000,000,000:1
That’s 1 billion to one and what does it mean? It’s simply the difference in EV from the center of the sun’s disc on a clear clear day to the darkest cave you can imagine, a place where there are no photons of light.
Is it common in nature? Nope, due to so much diffused light.
Should I worry about it? Nope, unless your a scientist taking measurements. It’s widely accepted in photography that the disc of the sun and surrounding area can be overexposed. But watch those clouds.
1. I often see posts that say “tone mapping a single image is not true HDR.”
Our primary goal as a photographer is not to capture HDR image sets with little thought about the scene. But through scene awareness we should concentrate on capturing the FULL dynamic range of the scene. It may take 3, 5, 7, or 9 images OR it may take just 1 image.
Single image tone mapping is not an inferior technique to the full blown HDR process when the single image captures the full dynamic range.
So where is the going? Process the full image set to HDR but also try to process a single image in the set. Choose the image based on the histograms and what areas of the image are important. I like to take 5 images at 1EV spacing so I have more options to chose from. There is one thing for sure, when you tone map a single image, ghosting and alignment issues will never be a problem.
My latest book is about the new and exciting techniques in HDR Photography.
“Single image tone mapping is not an inferior technique to the full blown HDR process when the single image captures the full dynamic range”
From my fairly limited understanding, I’m not sure this is true. Yes, you may have fully captured the dynamic range of the scene (i.e. the histogram stays within the upper and lower limits) BUT you would not have the detail in the shadows and highlights that would be available from merging with an underexposed and overexposed image.
Happy to be shown wrong on this.
Ross
Ross, If noise is an issue when you tone map the single image it is an indication that the dynamic range of the scene is approaching the upper limit of the effective dynamic range of your camera sensor. It’s interesting to research dynamic range of sensors. Researches vary in their conclusions, anywhere from 5-10EV depending on their tolerance for noise. Higher EV means higher noise levels. Even if you grab the full range of light there can be a question as to whether those pixels are high in quality and that only some of them lie within the sweet spot.
Let’s look at these simple examples - shoot a gray card and your sensor will have no problem capturing the full dynamic range, put a few bends in it and light will start to vary across the surface. Compose a shot that is all sky and does not include the sun. You will capture the full range of light and provided your exposure is correct there will be little to no noise. Take a picture of your car door or a highway billboard with no reflections and you’ll capture the full range of light. These examples are not common photographic subjects but they can allow you to start to see that not all scenes benefit from multiple exposures and the hdr process.
That said, I always shoot an image set, 5 images @ 1EV spacing and also try a single image tone map for comparison. Having 5 images to choose from is nice, it’s not always the 0EV that tone maps the best.
Ferrell
Comment by Ross — March 10, 2008 @ 9:31 pm