The Portland Metro Photographic News

I don't know about you, but my optical cortex is being numbed by the proliferation of HDR images in circulation that are over-saturated, too contrasty, over-sharpened and more photo-illustrative than photographic in nature.  As shown in the image below, HDR is becoming more a treatment for salvaging poor photography than the tool it was designed to be.

The original intent of HDR software was to address the same problem that Ansel Adams and his Zone System sought to overcome back in the 1930s.  Many scenes we encounter (in Ansel's day and in today's digital world) have ranges of density that exceed the film or digital sensor's capability to capture.  That is, the number of f/stops from the brightest part of a scene to the darkest part of the scene where we want to show detail (the dynamic range) is greater than we are able to record.  Today we label this exposure situation High Dynamic Range.

Ansel Adams' solution was the Zone System which expanded the dynamic range of a film through precise exposure and development control.  The digital darkroom took that tool away from photography.  But clever photo-software companies like Adobe (Photoshop) and HDRsoft (Photomatix) provided a digital answer -- High Dynamic Range processing.

The answer was simple, but the programming challenge was formidable.

With the camera securely held in place, take multiple pictures of a scene at different f/stops and digitally combine these individual images to produce a final photograph with an apparently greater dynamic range.

This multiple shot process would ensure that within all the individual over- and under-exposed "frames" were some that included all the details in the darkest parts of the picture as well as other "frames" that contained all the highlight detail that we wanted to capture -- and reproduce.  A perfect digital solution.  Now serious photographers had a way of doing the absolute hardest thing in photography -- producing a final image that accurately reflected what the photographer's mind's-eye saw when he/she took the picture.  And it will do just that.

Somewhere along the line, however, HDR processing became a fad much like solarization and posterization from days thankfully gone by.  Today's HDR fad requires exaggerated imagery that pumps up contrast and saturation to produce an almost cartoon-like image.  Initially, the images were interesting and often unique.  But, as these images have come to saturate the Internet, they have just become tired.  Images that once would have been the target of our digital trash can are now being HDR'rd to death.

And that's sad.  Because using High Dynamic Range processing as a tool to capture a photographic reality is a challenging and lofty goal in itself.  When used as originally envisioned, photographers can expand their vision whether in color (above) or in black and white (below).

Some may argue that the exaggerated use of HDR is a creative choice that produces stunning results.  All well and good -- dealer's choice.  But, it doesn't fit into my definition of photography or the potential offered by this photographic tool.

Do I promote the death of HDR processing? No.  (but the title did entice you to read this article)

I promote returning to the basics and exploiting the original purpose of this digital imaging solution.  Open your eyes to each scene.  Calculate the dynamic range, and when needed, use HDR processing as a Zone System-like approach to freeze that moment in time and render a final image that faithfully conveys what you saw.

Someday, camera manufacturers will produce sensors with extraordinary dynamic range.  Until then, the real danger is that with so many bad examples of HDR processing in circulation, photographers seeking only ways of expanding the dynamic range of their images to match the scene they experienced may dismiss HDR processing as a fad rather than regarding it as a viable solution.

(all images ©tom hubbard, 2009 All Rights Reserved)