A typical photographer’s dilemma: trying to decide, in a shot like this, whether to darken the interior more in order to prevent the loss of detail in the garden view or to risk losing even more by making the interior less dark. While the human eye can make the needed adjustment so quickly that we hardly notice the accommodation process involved, the camera can not, having to chose instead, one “view” or the other.
Enter HDR, a means of assuring a “high density rendering” by taking several shots of the same scene in rapid succession (over exposed, normal exposure, under exposed), thus preserving all the detail present in both the darkened interior and the bright exterior view. Computer software combines the resulting set of images into a single composite. (I use a program called Photomax Pro.)
Unfortunately neither the average computer screen nor printer can show the resulting image so as to render the resulting combination in all its glory. The computer software, however, comes to the rescue again with a formula that puts the detail where it belongs while compressing the overall result to something a computer screen can “see” and a printer can transfer appropriately to a paper print out.
It all sounds more complicated than it is, but, as the photo pair below indicates (the top a single shot; the bottom, an HDR composite), in many complex situations combining areas of shadow with bright sun, the results are worth the effort involved.
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