Fordson HDR

The above image is an HDR image of the ancient Fordson tractor I photographed on May 18, 2011. The edited result of this photograph was a lengthy process and I am not entirely pleased with the end result but I am sick today and do not have the energy to spend more time tweaking certain elements. But I will explain the process of HDR nevertheless because if used properly the images can be quite stunning. In google type in HDR under the images search and you will see what I mean.

HDR stand for "high dynamic range" which basically means that both the dark and light areas of several photographs (exact same photograph at different exposures) are combined in order to create a broad range of tones and light intensity across the entire photograph. In order to get a wide spectrum of luminance into one image you have to take 3-6 shots (6 is preferred) of the exact same picture at different exposures (amount of light that is projected onto the film or digital sensor that creates an image). The first shot will be the darkest and your last shot will be the lightest or visa-versa. For the above image I used a tripod to take 5 of the exact same shots at different exposures by setting my exposure compensation to -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 with a manually set aperture and an automatic shutter speed.

Now that I have my images I go to my PC and put them into an HDR program called Photomatix Pro which combines the pictures into one final image that has a combined broad spectrum of luminance. From there you can tone map (map one set of colors to another to create different contrast) the image to achieve your desired effect. I further edited the final tone mapped result in Photoshop to crop the image and apply noise reduction to smooth and sharpen the photo.

A lot of photographers may see this type of extreme editing and unrealistic effect as a photographic image lacking purity. I remember reading somewhere that you should spend at least 20 minutes or longer to finding the right angle or spot to a scene before you start the tedious process of HDR creation which includes finding the shot, setting up your tripod, taking shots, and editing (most time spent here). With all the time that it takes to create an HDR photo that has this unrealism added, is it worth it? I suppose the worth of the photograph is decided by the creator and the people that look at the photograph. Yes this was a bit of a tedious process but it was fun to try HDR out in order to create an alien image you would never see in "real" photography.