Photography
In reply to the discussion: June Competition Comment Thread [View all]MichaelSoE
(1,576 posts)I was going to submit an old HDR from my film days for the contest. but I submitted a digital but expanded the tonal range using the technique in the tutorial linked below.
Achieving an increased dynamic range has been long sought by photographers. Film, and now digital, has never been able to reproduce the range of tonality that the human eye is capable of seeing. When we look at a scene we see the details in the shadows and the detail in the highlights. Photography is incapable of capturing that same range in one shot. Shoot for detail in the highlights without burning them out and there are no details in the shadows ... it's just pure black. Shoot for the shadows and the highlights are burned out ... glaring white.
The trick with film (negative not slide film) was to overexpose to capture the shadow detail then underdevelop so as not to blow out the highlights.
I have been doing HDR for a long time. This is the film shot I was going to submit. It was taken just as the sun had dipped below the horizon. There was not much latitude so I expose for the buildings then developed so as not to blow out the white fence.
Also if you do not want to use automated HDR software, here is a link to DYI (you do need photoshop or an equivalent program) HDR.
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml
[edit ... another link] A link on Luminous Landscape on HDR
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/techniques/hdr_into_light.shtml