Book Review on HDR
Mastering HDR Photography
Michael Freeman
AmPhoto Books, 2008-10-11
Truth be told, I’ve not made my mind up about High Dynamic Range imaging. The simple fact of the matter is what’s really being done is a reduction in contrast... to go back to canonic basics, it’s compressing the number of zones. Paper has always been the limiting factor in presenting images to the world. With the rise of the net, lots of people are sharing pictures in media which have the ability to show a greater tonal range than the 7-8 stops of paper.
Sensors tend to run to, about, 9 stops. The world... runs to 30 stops (the full range of luminance, in the course of a day is about 40... but that compares a moonless night to a sunny day, which; while measurable, isn’t something we can find in actual fact). Human vision is the problem. As we look at things we are constantly interpreting the variations in light and filing them; to then integrate them as if we saw all of it at one glance.
Recording media, be they film or sensor, can’t do that. If the tonal range is wider than the medium can record, we have to choose what we want to record. Enter the world of HDR. by making multiple exposures and then using the computer to replace the blown out, or blocked up, parts of the image from frames which have detail, we can compress the wider range of zones, into the limits of the display medium.
How to go about doing that is what the book is about. All in all, it’s useful, if you have a basic understanding of some of the terms, or are willing to flip back and forth to the glossary (which, oddly enough, has terms which I don’t recall seeing in the book. Either I glossed them, because I didn’t know them, or they weren’t there). He does a fair bit of counting on one knowing Photoshop (this is a failing in most books on generic editing, Photoshop is the 800 lb. gorilla in the world of digital editing), but since PS isn’t the only player in the HDR market, this isn’t quite the problem it is in some books, but a number of the procedures, and definitions, only make sense if one speaks Photoshop
There are some flaws in the editing (both technical, and layout) So far as I could tell the technical mistakes were simple things, which were more things not used any longer being misremembered. The portions on the actual HDR seemed to be fine (I assume the tech editor wasn’t an old hand at film, which is where the mistakes I saw were located. Then again, I’m not an expert on HDR, so unless I hit something which fails to work as described, I may never know of mistakes in that area
In terms of setting a basic understanding of the process, the book is superb. He does a good job of defining the terms, and establishing the problems to solve. At that level it’s a pretty good primer. Where he fails the reader is the casual use of specialised terms. Some of this comes from his addressing 1: a pretty technical subject, and 2: dealing with four different programs. I’m willing to cut him some slack on the terminology for basic editing, because this isn’t something people tend to get into right out the gate. Until they’ve been shooting awhile, the odds of them being willing to spend the money to get a book on HDR, before studying a little bit about how things work are slim
The step by step examples of each of the HDR programs he tackles are good. I have PS CS2, and I used the book to treat some photos to an HDR treatment. Even when I didn’t have it ready to hand what I recalled from it made a decent image obtainable. When I went and got the book, the methods he described were pretty effective I assume the same thing applies to the programs I don’t have.
The only one of those which didn’t work for me was the section on “stitching.” I think, as I re-read it again, he’s actually talking about doing two, different, things at the same time. 1: An HDR treatment of a scene which has more tonal range than the sensor can record, and 2: taking a number of pictures, to capture an image wider than the lens can capture. It’s an interesting thing, and it’s nice to know it can be done, I just don’t think it was very well presented.
The section on workflow was solid, mostly because he did a good job of mapping the patterns of workflow, in such a way as to show the variety of choice available, regardless of which editing path you might choose. He even showed mine (Neutral conversion from RAW, HDR in CS2, Post-HDR editing in LightZone). He also made plain what I thought possible, that working with RAW files one can “fake” an HDR image by playing with the +/- Exposure settings in image generation, and then passing them through an HDR editor. Some of those editors will require the EXIF data be fiddled, but he lets you know which ones need that, saving a small bit of frustration later.
All in all, taking the failings into account, it’s a pretty good book on the basics of HDR, if you already comfortable with the basics of editing.
Mastering HDR Photography
Michael Freeman
AmPhoto Books, 2008-10-11
Recommended Retail: $24.95US/29.95CAN
