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What is HDR, anyway?

(www.lux.camera)
791 points _kush | 1 comments | 14 May 25 12:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.236s | source
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sergioisidoro ◴[14 May 25 14:06 UTC] No.43984729[source]▶
Just one other thing. In Analog you also have compensating developers, which will exhaust faster in darker areas (or lighter if you think in negative), and allow for lighter areas more time to develop and show, and hence some more control of the range. Same but to less degree with stand development which uses very low dilutions of the developer, and no agitation. So dodging and burning is not the only way to achieve higher dynamic range in analog photos.

About HDR on phones, I think they are the blight of photography. No more shadows and highlights. I find they are good at capturing family moments, but not as a creative tool.

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1. CharlesW ◴[14 May 25 23:00 UTC] No.43990077[source]▶
> About HDR on phones, I think they are the blight of photography. No more shadows and highlights.

HDR is what enables you to capture both the darkest shadow detail and the brightest highlight detail.

With SDR, one or both are often simply just lost. It might come down to preference — if you're an "auto" shooter and like the effect of the visual information at the edges of the available dynamic range being truncated, SDR is for you.

Some people prefer to capture that detail and have the ability to decide whether and how to diminish or remove it, with commensurately more control over the artistic impact. For those folks, HDR is highly desirable.