Better Available Light Digital Photography : How to Make the Most of Your Night and Low-light Shots

Basic exposure 49

to HDR) command. Because an HDR image contains brightness

levels that far exceed the display capabilities of a standard

monitor or the range of tones in a printed image, Photoshop lets

you adjust the preview of the HDR image so it can be viewed

on a computer monitor. Now all Photoshop tools, adjustments,

and fi lters can be applied to HDR images. If you need to print

the image or use tools and fi lters that don’t work with HDR

images, you can always convert the HDR image to an 8- or 16-

bits-per-channel image.

Other HDR software

You don’t have to own Adobe Photoshop to create HDR images.

Lots of software that produces these kinds of fi les is available

from other sources. Photomatix Pro (www.hdrsoft.com) is avail-

Photomatix Pro is a stand-alone program that runs on Mac OS X and Windows. The Tone Mapping tool is
also available separately as a plug-in compatible with Photoshop CS2. © 2007 Joe Farace.