Welcome to Make it Monday!
In your classes at AiP Online, you will be introduced to a technique known as the HDR Technique. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range technique that can be done in Photoshop. In short, when a photographer creates an HDR images, he or she will merge a few different photographs together. Each of these photos have been exposed to capture different tonal values: the highlights, the mid-tones and the shadows. The reason why this technique is so popular is because it allows the photographer to create a composite image that has a wider range of contrast verses what a photographer could capture in a single image.
In the photographs below, you can see the completed HDR image on top and the three photos that were merged together below.
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| Szklanny, Mariano, Cerro Tronador, Argentina, 2009. |
Notice how there are three very distinct exposure settings? The photograph on the left has been measured for the shadows, the photograph in the middle for mid-tones and the one on the right, for highlights.
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| Le Gray, Gustave, Untitled, 1856/7. |
Although this process can be completed in Photoshop, the idea behind the HDR Technique is anything but new or contemporary. In the 1850s, photographer Gustave Le Gray wanted to create a photograph where he could capture an ocean landscape; exposing both the sky and the sea. During this time, Le Gray used one negative for the sky and one negative for the sea; two different exposure settings for each negative. In the darkroom, Le Gray combined the two negatives into one positive. Do you know of any other historical photographers who have worked in a similar method?
Care to watch a fantastic video about how to create an HDR image? I thought you might... click "here" to see the video tutorial created by Adobe TV.
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"High-dynamic-range Imaging." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 July 2013. Web. 18 July 2013.
Kabili, Jan. "Create Enhanced HDR Images with HDR Pro." AdobeTV. Lynda.com, n.d. Web. 18 July 2013.