japanese hdr

i love digital photography but actually know next to nothing about what is possible and that should probably change when and if i get myself a new and better camera. i came across this extraordinary technique which apparently is relatively commonplace now and i think you’ll be amazed if you aren’t familiar with it.

called hdr for high dynamic range, what you do is take several photos of the same scene using different exposure values. that way you get photos that have the darkest darks, and others with the lightest lights. then you combine the photos (photoshop even has an option for this) and presto, high dynamic range. here’s the really detailed technogeek skinny on the technology behind hdr. here’s a really detailed but easily understood explanation of how to create an hdr photograph.

it would very cool if this could be made an onboard feature of digital cameras but until then we’ll have the pleasure of fiddling with images after they’re taken to achieve this effect. i think you’ll agree that it’s well worth the effort.

just to show you what it looks like, here are some hdr images sourced from wikipedia as well as a mind-blowing set of flickr images, all of which originate in japan. here are a few to get you started . . .






here’s the link to the full collection of japanese hdr images.