Pseudo-HDR
Some HDR software, notably Photomatix Pro and HDR Efex Pro, although not the current Photoshop, will import single Raw images for tone mapping.
This is not, of course, true HDR, in that the range in a single Raw comes nowhere near the dynamic range that can be captured in a sequence of different exposures. Nevertheless, what makes this technique worth considering in low light is that the tone mapping procedures are sophisticated and powerful, and can often recover more from the shadows and highlights, as well as emphasizing local detail, than a normal Raw converter.
The example worked through here is processed in Photomatix Pro, which converts a Raw file into a pseudo-HDR file. In fact, the dynamic range of a Raw file depends only ...
Get The Low Light Photography Field Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
