The death of HDR photography?

A post by: Gavin HardcastlePIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-125136983652641e6546cz.jpg” width=”610″ height=”428″‘ Condensation “by Gavin Hardcastle-location, Gastown, Vancouver, BC/PPAdapt or die. It is the way of the world, and with the ever-changing rhythms of the digital age, you have got to be light on your feet in order to survive. I am not an oracle, but I address these words of warning to all software companies have a vested interest in HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing for photography./PPIf you’ve seen one of my work, you know that I trust on HDR photography techniques to the enormous dynamic range in the scenes that I shoot. The thing is, since I started shooting with the Sony A7R, I’ve been using HDR less and less./PPThe new wave of digital sensors is upon us and the Bayer sensor in the Sony A7R is by no means the best there. If you have deep pockets, you get the best dynamic range from digital camera back of Phase One, MamiyaLeaf and Hasselblad, but it’s only a matter of time until the market catches prosumer, as it always does./PPThe following are some recent examples of images of high dynamic range (Don’t Show assigned) I created from only a single exposure with my Sony A7R. With my old Canon 5 d MkII, I had no choice but to bracket 3 different exposures and then mix them in my HDR app of choice. These days, I only need to do that in extreme cases, such as Sun Star shots where there are large can be lens flare. These images were processed usually in Adobe Camera Raw with some additional color correction on Photoshop./PIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-12513699295fd9d51274cz.jpg” width=”610″ height=”299″‘ Cold steamy ‘ by Gavin Hardcastle-location, Gastown, Vancouver, BCPIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-123569538746222049e67z.jpg” width=”610″ height=”358″‘ Stumpcicle ‘ by Gavin Hardcastle-Ladysmith, BC/PIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-12421611694ca95fb195ez.jpg” width=”610″ height=”428″‘ Stocking St freeze ‘ by Gavin Hardcastle-Ladysmith, BCPIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-125136989552bd052190cz.jpg” width=”610″ height=”428″‘ Steam powered ‘ by Gavin Hardcastle-Gastown, Vancouver, BC/PPWith the pictures above I basically pulled the expose for the highlights and shadow detail back up in Adobe Camera Raw even dynamic range. I Had tried this with something like the 5 D MkII, the noise and the lack of clarity of the image have made this unusable. Now I do not older camera sensors to newer, that’s pointless comparing am, that my purpose here is to emphasize how terribly powerful the new wave of image sensors can be when it comes to dynamic range and how that will affect the HDR software companies./PPImagine the freedom to know that you’ve nailed that epic sunset shot with just one exposure. It gives you more time to move around and try different compositions. With no need to confirm you save time during a shoot, so you more creativity. You will also save on hard disk space and processing time which will speed up your workflow./PPIf you are new to HDR are and are not familiar with terms like ‘ bracketing ‘, head over to my HDR Tutorial to learn how it’s done-or these articles dPS:/PPI don’t have a crystal ball, but my advice to companies such as SNS-HDR, Oloneo and Photomatix is related to their software more to the RAW file for settings that make HDR results of a single exposure. As sensors capture to get better and more dynamic range, it’s going to be the norm for us to catch all the dynamic range we need to in just a RAW file. The magic comes from being able to process the RAW files in a beautiful way with just a click of the mouse. After all, those RAW files from the memory card not looking their best. You need to do a little tweaking to pull out those details and crank up the eye candy. That is where I see a hole for the software companies./PIMG class=” ” alt=”” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-125136975452a71a84c96z.jpg” width=”610″ height=”428″‘ BBQ Corner ‘ by Gavin Hardcastle