Practical Photography - UK (2020-01)

theedit

92 PracticalPhotograPhy

O

nthoseoccasions

wherelightinglevelsare

out of yourcontrol,it can

behelpfulto havea techniqueup

yoursleeveto ensureyoucanstill

capturethefullrangeof toneswithin

a scene,fromtheverydarkestto the

absolutebrightest.hDr– high

dynamicrange– is a toolthatletsyou

ta kecontrolof thecontrastin a shot,

asoftenyourcameracan’trecordall

the highlightandshadowdetailin

a si ngleframe.

thehDrtechniqueis particularly

usefulwhenshootinginteriorswith

brightwindows,suchas in theshot

we’veusedhere,or anycomposition

thatnaturallycontainsa widerange

ofhighlightsandshadows.Whilein

somecaseswe couldusegraduated

filtersto controlthelight,in others

wecando it digitallyusinghDr

te chniquesin theeditingprocess,

and thiscanworkbetterwhenthe

shapeof thebrightestpartsisn’teasy

tofilteroutduringthecapture.

Howto useHDRbetter

toapplyan hDrapproach,startby

shootingin sucha waythatcaptures

al l of thehighlightandshadowdetail

inthescene.this involvestaking

separateexposureswithdifferent

settingsto coverthefulldynamic

range.theseseparateexposuresare

thentakenintoPhotoshop,or another

editingpackage,andcombinedso

thatthemaximumdetailis retained

inthefinalimage– a processthat’s

calledtonemapping.even if your

camerahasan automatichDrmode

thatdoesall of thisautomatically,

it ’s oftenbetterto workin theway

outlinedhere,as you’llhavemore

controlandendup witha better

qualityresult.

nIt canbe easyto go overthetopwith

anHDRedit,introducinggarishcolours

andunnatural haloeswherethey’renot

welcome,as shownin theimageto the

right.For thisreason,it’sa technique

that’sbestusedsparinglyas a wayof

manuallycontrollingtheexposureof

a sc ene.An over-cookedHDReffectis

somethingto be avoided.

expert advice

What makes an

hdr image Work?

Capture the full

range of contrast

in tricky light

Kingsley Singleton shows how to use

high dynamic range shooting and

editing techniques for pics with punch.

Above& rightIn the

or iginalshotsthecontrast

is ve ryhighandmostof

th e imageis eithertoo

lig htortoodark,butthe

versioncreatedusing

theHDRtechniqueis

much morebalanced.

what

you need

nPhotoshopCC

nA camerathatallows

manualshooting

orexposure

br acketing

after

exposure 1

exposure 2

tip!

Shootthreeor

moreexposures to

capturedetailshidden

in thebrightestand

darkestpartsof

yo urscene.