HDR Images

[DaltonSkyGazer]

Ok so I have been seeing this term HDR images for some time now, never really paid much attention to it other than fact I knew it meant high dynamic range. So tonight I went online took a bit of break from fast pace of life for few minutes just to research a bit and see some impressive HDR images for regular photography, I also see a program Photomatix which seems quite popular. From what I see HDR images are created from bracketed exposures of a subject underexposed all the way up to overexposed, sort of a way to tweak all the shadows, highlights, etc to create one final surreal image. I see there seems to be few methods over years which one accomplished this in my reading.

Can anyone here expand on HDR topic along with how it is applied to AP and maybe offer some pointers on software used, pluggins, or other methods used. I find the topic quite fascinating and looking to learn more. Think it would be great to see some AP images with and without HDR on same subject if anyone has examples. Just trying to educate myself bit further and possibly open up some new doors and techniques to explore.


Thanks!

[kbeverage]

If you think about it we already do a form of HDR imaging on many targets. For example take the Orion Nebula - to get really good results it is necessary to take several sets of images of various exposure lengths, starting with short exposures to capture the detail of the Trapezium and inner core and then increasing exposure times up to several minutes to capture the faint dust in the outlying regions. Once we've processed all of those sets we combine the resulting images in post-processing mostly thru the use of multiple layers to achieve a final image that is far better than an image made from a series of frames all taken at one set exposure length would be. As a simple example I would offer this image of the Moon I took back in November:


This is three images of 1/125s (terminator region), 1/200s (middle section) and 1/320s (right edge) all combined in PS CS2.

[DaltonSkyGazer]

Sort of how I was thinking we do stack and layer images of various exposures to overcome bright cores in objects such as galaxies etc. We also use layer masks etc to blend all of these elements together to bring out the fine dust clouds and shadows. The HDR images done in traditional photography look pretty amazing, if not a little bit surreal. Thinking term HDR is bit of a catch phrase as applied to AP. We've been layering various exposures for years now. Thanks for clarification.