One of the most brilliant developments since the digital revolution in photography is the ability to use High Dynamic Range (HDR). For anyone unfamiliar with this technique, in it’s simplest form, you make several exposures of a single image to ensure you have detail from the highlights all the way down to the shadows. Before some of the automated software was developed for blending the images, you would load them into a photoshop file, then using masks and brushes, you would blend the images together to achive a dynamic range digital cameras simply cannot achieve on their own. It seems I’ve been called a lot to shoot kitchens, so that’s where I’ve been using HDR the most and am loving the results. I would much rather capture the lighting the designer intended than to come in with my own lights and change the entire mood.
I’ve been trying some advanced techniques that really aren’t well documented yet and as I experiment more, maybe I’ll post some results and comparisons. Here are some questions I’m trying to answer using the old trial and error method:
- Do you get better results if you first process the images and do a bit of dodging and burning in some specific areas?
- What happens if you mix color temperature of the files before processing them together (i.e. tungsten for the interiors, but daylight for the exposure intended to capture the outdoors, etc.)
- Do you get the same results if you first make two or three MDR (medium dynamic range) images, then, blend those.
If anyone has experience trying any of these methods out, leave a comment with a link to your blog or results.
For more information about architectural photography, contact Los Angeles Photographer, William Foster.
by William Foster
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