HDR imaging 7Our software was not build as scientific tool. We focused on the easy to understand, easy to use quick
work-flow that can almost instantly produce interesting images. It should be an addition to your tool-
box, for special purposes, not a pipe to run every single image you captured through it.
HDR vs. LDR images
There is a significant difference between our dynamic vision (and what our brain thinks it see) and the
cold fact of ordinary low dynamic range photography.
Example of normal scene:
A storm could produce beautiful clouds, but if we try to capture the scene with a digital camera, none
of the images in any exposure will reproduce what we really saw with our eyes. The middle image is
the camera calculated exposure, right is overexposed +2EV and left is underexposed -2EV. None of
the exposures are too exciting.
While we did take a reasonable photo of the clouds in the middle image and even more in the under-
exposed image, any of the scene surroundings become too dark. With over-exposing the image we
did bring the dark details out, but the clouds are now washed away and it no longer look as a storm. If
we try to fix any of the image in image editing application we can dodge or burn only certain amount,
because there is simply not enough details in any of the picture to cover the whole tonal range. With
low dynamic range photography a complex scene is always a matter of compromise.
However if we can combine all the exposures into one image, we will suddenly have enough dynamic
range to pull/push details from dark/highlights. The result is below.
While the scene is still the same, it is just a parking lot with a storm sky, hardly a candidate for an art,
the image is now far more interesting than any of the single exposures above.
There is of course much more to the photography than just snapping pictures and then process it
through a software. We never want to suggest that any digital technique can be a replacement for
artistic vision or a basic photographic knowledge. A bad technique will result in bad pictures, no matter
how much time you spent tweaking pixels in any software.
Please note, in this tutorial we are going to show an ordinary images, not a professionally
photographed scenes. In fact most of the images were taken by hand, not using tripod which actually
allowed us to fully test our Pin Warping method. We believe this is more fair as not everyone is taking