high dynamic range photography

Welcome to the HDR section of our website. For those not familiar with the technique, here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

High Dynamic Range imaging (HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes.
The two main sources of HDR are computer renderings and the merging of multiple photographs. Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect.

On this page are two examples of shots before v after processing through HDR. The before shots weren’t exactly rubbish, but the after versions undeniably have more vibrancy and arguably are therefore more interesting (click the thumbnails on the right for their larger versions). Now there are those that say that HDR processing results in ‘fake’-looking pictures; all we can say is have a look at a range of pictures and see what you think. If you want to see some really striking HDR shots, where the HDR-effect takes precedence over subtlety, click here.

To decide for yourself, open our gallery of HDR pictures, by clicking here [no login required]