High Dynamic Range Photography

See this web page for a description of High Dynamic Range photography.

This is an excellent resource book for HDR photography:  Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography, by Ferrell McCollough; Published by Lark Books, a Division of Sterling Publishing Co.

ISBN-10:  1-60059-196-5                    ISBN-13:  978-1-60059-196-9

Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography, by Ferrell McCollough

Published by Lark Books, a Division of Sterling Publishing Co.

ISBN-10:  1-60059-196-5                    ISBN-13:  978-1-60059-196-9

The following information is my listing of information in the above book, so I can find the information faster.

Page & Topic

20        example histograms and photos (RAW & HDR)

39        camera settings

47        adjustments to avoid, and allowable

52        tone mapping workflow

54        grain vs noise

58        controlling grain enhancements

61        tone compressor vs details enhancer

69        HDR software

73        software comparison

86        post-processing HDR images

87        blending with layers & masks

97        judging contrast

102      number of images

110      noise & number of images

115      ghosting

123      flash merging

137      HDR panorama workflow

143      single image tone mapping

159      regions of extreme brightness

161      including the sun

162      including the moon

165      macros & flowers

166      HDR & snow

168      night & low light HDR

170      extreme tone mapping

174      HDR portraits

Tone mapping workflow

The default Photomatix Pro tone mapping operator is Details Enhancer. Click the Default button to place all slider in their starting positions.

Step 1: Set Gamma. Set the Gamma slider so midtones fall in the middle of the histogram.

Step 2: Set Strength and Light Smoothing. For the look of a traditional photo, move the Strength slider to the left in the range of 25 – 50 and Light Smoothing to the High or Very High. You may find that a Strength setting of 50 – 100 is more desirable.

Step 3: Set White Point and Black Point. These add global contrast to the image. Typical settings are low-to-middle. If low settings are used, then post-processing of contrast may be needed.

Step 4: Set Microcontrast and Microsmoothing. For an image with large small-scale contrast, set the Microcontrast to 10 (right) and lower the Microsmoothing (left). For an image with softer transitions in local contrast, lower Microcontrast to –10 and raise Microsmoothing to 30. Avoid moving both sliders full right or full left, as they tend to cancel each other out.

The book’s author typically has a Microcontrast setting of 0 – 7 and a Microsmoothing setting of 0 – 10.

See the referenced book for much more information. Thank you for Bob Lott and his HDR presentation to the Chester County Camera Club, for getting me started on using HDR photography.