HDR and eat your veggies!

I made my first HDR photo. 

You're probably wondering what this means, so first I'll show the definition I found online and then I'll show the final HDR photo as well as its composite photos. Stop cringing...you'll understand in a second!

HDR: High Dynamic Range is a digital photography technique whereby multiple exposures of the same scene are layered and merged using image editing software to create a more realistic image, or a dramatic effect. The combined exposures can display a wider range of tonal values than what the digital camera is capable of recording in a single image.

This is what it looks like: 

This is a combination of four photos, each with different exposures, whose combination creates a surreal effect. Why? Because our eyes cannot "read" over a certain number of exposures properly all at the same time. This means that if your eyes are searching for details in a dark area of a scene, for example, in between the bushes, they cannot also see the relatively bright sky at a reasonable brightness; compared to the dark bushes, the sky should look extremely bright. But HDR allows the photographer to combine multiple "proper" exposures, to the effect that the sky is not so different in shade from the dark bushes. That's just not natural.

Here are the four, composite photos: (Keep an eye on the sky to see the jumps in exposure)

And here's the final HDR again: 

My overall review of the HDR technique is that it looks cool but it's not my taste. It's like trying a new vegetable at family dinner once a week (is that just my family?): you have to try it before saying you don't like it!

My dad's pretty good at HDR though-it's his trademark.

Sincerely Sophie

Comments

[Alana]

Even if you didn't end up liking the technique, it's good that you tried it. Nice work, Soph!

[Mon]

Very cool!