User's Manual

Photomatix Essentials 4.0 User Manual

Section 1: HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography

1.1 What Is HDR Photography?

The central premise of HDR photography is that there are few situations where a single photograph can capture

the true dynamic range (the total range of light in a scene, from very dark to very light) of a scene accurately.

In other words, today’s digital camera can’t properly expose everything at the same time in scenes with even

moderate contrast ratios. This results in two main problems (which sometimes happen together in the same

photo):

• Blown highlights

When the exposure is raised to make sure the

foreground or subject is properly exposed,

brighter ar eas of the scene suer. They “blow out”

and turn white because they have very little or no

usable data in them.

• Lost detail in the shadows

Conversely, when bright areas of a scene are

pro tected (by lowering exposure), there is not

enough light to register details on the camera’s

sensor in dark areas of the scene. These turn to

shadow and black ness.

HDR photography solves these problems by taking enough photos (typically 3, separated by 2 EV steps) to

contain the entire exposure range of a scene. With that data in hand, Photomatix Essentials can merge the dif-

ferent photos and process them to rescue details from shadows and keep highlights from blow ing out.

For many photographers the key purpose and signicance of HDR is its ability to increase photographic realism.

HDR to this photographer is not an “eect”, but is a remedy to the dynamic range limitation of camera image

sensors. To some of these photographers, in fact, it is the standard photograph which is somewhat non-realistic,

in that it does not accurately capture the full dynamic range of most photographed scenes

For many other photographers, HDR is approached more as a creative tool, and one that aords great artistic

latitude. From a practical point of view, however, every style of HDR photography is built on the same

foundation, a well shot bracketed set.

The next section provides guidelines and best practices for properly capturing bracketed sets.