Comments on: The Future of HDR and its Use within the Camera

By: rob brydon

rob brydon — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:10:25 +0000

I’m using the HDR in my Sony A550 which BTW offers sveral levels of adjustment in camera. It takes 2 images and blends them perfectly, hand held. The trick is not to ocer do it. ..It’s great.

By: Dreamer of Pictures

Dreamer of Pictures — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:16:29 +0000

Solve the problem at the time you shoot. In the example shown by the author, expose as was done in the first photo, for decent sky color, and simply fill-flash the foreground elements to bring out color and detail. Admittedly this won’t work in every situation, because sometimes darker elements of a scene may be beyond the range of the flash, but it works very frequently.

By: Karen Stuebing

Karen Stuebing — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:14:54 +0000

@Mike, Here is one review of the Sony A550's in camera HDR. The reviewer admits he's not a big fan of HDR. DPReview.com There are some sample photos on this page. I think that when HDR is done well, it can produce some amazing photos. The question is whether you think the in camera processing works as well as post processing. It seems to me, as in all things with digital cameras, you're better off in control rather than using the default camera functions and then post processing to get what you want. That is a generalization, of course. To be honest, for $800, it wouldn't be worth it for me. But then again, I think shadows can be intriguing and I also pick the time of day for the effect I want in a photo. Sometimes you want a lot of contrast. Sometimes you don't.

By: yusran

yusran — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:44:42 +0000

i think not many here know much about sony dslr. talking about in-camera hdr sony has made a great achievement in that regard. you can look at the review on Sony a550, sony a500 and the latest sony a450. These new range of sony entry-level has tone of features especially a550.

these camera are capable of producing in-camera auto hdr effectively and you don’t need a tripod to get it done. Sony achieves this is with some remarkable in camera processing that aligns two images pixel to pixel.

http://www.alphamountworld.com/reviews/sony-dslr-alpha-a550-review?page=0%2C2

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/a550-first.shtml

By: Richard Crowe

Richard Crowe — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:10:02 +0000

I wish that the successors to the 50D and 7D level of Canon cameras would have a five stop auto exposure compensation which could be accessed with burst mode. In other words, burst would shoot five shots +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 stops. This would facilitate HDRI shooting to a great degree. I believe that some Nikon models have the five stop capability but I don’t know if it can be accessed by burst mode.

By: Walt Bobrowski

Walt Bobrowski — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:44:59 +0000

Here is an excellent technical paper on HDR microscopy which explains the underlying concept, examples of the excellent tonal range achievable in a single image from multiple exposures, and various software approaches to processing HDR images, with recommendations. All is applicable to routine digital photography. I have no affiliation with the author.

http://www.microscopy-analysis.com/files/jwiley_microscopy/2009_January_Piper.pdf

By: jake

jake — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:18:10 +0000

The problem with such large amount of color information is that monitors cannot display all of these colors, nor can printers print them. It’s wonderful to be able to record them, but technology on the other end has yet to catch up with today’s cameras, let alone cameras of the future.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:51:19 +0000

I just found out that Sony’s newest DSLR, the a500 I believe, has an HDR function on that will take HDR images rather than stitching them together in Photoshop or Photomatix. I am hesitant to spend $800.00 on another camera just for that feature, however…

By: Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:21:44 +0000

Lorian,

You are right that 8 bit-per-pixel image can contain a maximum of 256 distinct colours. What we are talking about here, however, is not the number of bits per pixel but the number of bits per colour component. A JPEG image, for example, has 8 bits per component which adds up to a total of 24 bits of information per pixel (8 red, 8 blue and 8 green). If you store 14 bits per component, this equates to 42 bits per pixel (14 red, 14 blue and 14 green). HDR image file formats typically store either 16 or 32 bits per component meaning 48 to 96 bits per pixel.

The number of distinct colours that a pixel can represent is given by 2 to the power of the number of bits used to describe the pixel.

By: Lorian

Lorian — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:48:57 +0000

I’m baffled that there is a disagreement on how many colors are in an 8-, 12- or 14-bit image. This isn’t some theoretical number it’s well documented. 8-bit color has (2^8) 256 colors TOTAL. If you don’t believe me, look it up. All the information above is accurate.

Regarding the computer analogy, it is quite appropriate. If you read the article he never said that 32- or 64-bit processing had ANYTHING to do with the number of colors on the screen. He was making a correlation between how far we have come with technology and what is possible on the horizon.

I love the articles on this site but most of the comments are just terrible. Let’s use a little constructive critisicm and less subjective opinions.