HDR: An Introduction to High Dynamic Range Photography

Ready, Set...Before You Go

It may seem as if there's a lot to do before getting started with HDR processing, but don't worry, this section is quite short. We're going to jump right into HDR processing tutorials on the next page. There's just a couple of computer-related points to mention that didn't fit into the file organization chapter.

There are several 32-bit file formats available: Floating point Tiff (.TIFF) Radiance (.hdr), and OpenEXR (.exr), among others. Floating point tiffs are huge—over 100MB for a single HDR file from a modern 8- or 10-megapixel camera. Radiance and OpenEXR use different compression algorithms and both offer a good balance between fidelity and compression, and don't take up quite as much disk space.

For a seriously technical deep dive into the differences between the various file formats, check out: http://www.anyhere.com/gward/hdrenc/hdr_encodings.html

For a beginner purpose, any of the three previously-named file formats will work for HDR imaging. As an added bonus, all three programs can handle these file formats. A 32-bit Radiance (.hdr) file created in Photomatix Pro can be opened and processed in Adobe Photoshop CS2 or FDRTools, and vice-versa in all directions. There is no need to regenerate a new HDR from your LDR source image series for each program.

HDR imaging for still photography is still in its infancy, and the numbers and setting offered in the following examples work for the specific LDR series, but the same numbers and settings applied ...