So now that I am interacting with viewers of my work (at the local weekly markets) I have grown to discover how HDR photography has become a buzz word with even the amateur set. I have no problem with my work being seen as having a high dynamic range of colors or tones – that is my goal.
My issue is that I do not believe what these gurus call HDR is what I do. I essentially see the light in a scene and try to capture all the 30,000 tones available so that I can essentially paint with whatever light I want (or can capture) – like a painter.
These gurus are using software and simple bracketing to get a 32 bit image that could never be reproduced in a print. Then using tone mapping or local-contract controls they create their HDR image with limited control based on algorithms – leaving a huge chunck of control of the image to the computer. Click these links for one tutorial and another two tutorial. I do not use any methods described by these tutorials.
What I do is see this new realm of photography as “Light Painting” as this is exactly how I approach my work. I look forward to sharing much more on this topic.
