Getting the Right Light in a Photo
High Dynamic Range photography takes a series of over, under and properly exposed photos and then mashes the best parts together to cover a full range of light.
The eye can see a much greater range of light and dark than a camera can, which is why windows look like glowing boxes in daylight photos taken indoors.
That is where H.D.R. (High Dynamic Range) photography comes in. It takes a series of over, under and properly exposed photos and then mashes the best parts together to cover a full range of light. It makes images that are much closer to what the eye actually sees.
But there have been barriers to using H.D.R. The primary issue is that moving subjects change position from shot to shot in the series and appear blurry in the final images. That limits H.D.R.'s use to still-life photography conducted under careful conditions with a steady tripod.
But a new H.D.R. software program from Unified Color, called HDR Expose 3, does two things well that other H.D.R. programs generally don’t (especially the H.D.R. software built into cameras). One is to line up pictures from slightly different angles, which eliminates the need for a tripod. If you’re taking hand-held H.D.R. photos, though, be sure your shutter is set to a fast speed, burst mode and auto bracketing â€" and you’ll still have to be as steady as possible.
The other thing that it does is make moving objects, like people walking through the frame, solid instead of a blur. In the software, you pick the frame in which you like the positioning of the people (or kites, clouds, animals â€" whatever is moving) and the program compares that frame with others. It eliminates the elements that are in different positions from the frame you picked when it mashes them together.
H.D.R. has been criticized for the otherworldly look it can impart. Expose 3 settings allow it to be much more subtle and natural, though it also has a “grunge†setting that delivers striking effects.
There is a little bit of a learning curve to the product, which is available either as a stand-alone program or as a plug-in that works in other programs like Adobe’s Photoshop. The video tutorials on the Unified Color Web site are a big help, especially because the software isn’t foolproof â€" you need to learn a few manual fixes.
The stand-alone version of HDR Expose 3 is $120, or you can buy a $90 version called 32 Float V3, which adds Expose 3’s features to Photoshop.
