The Look of HDR

A growing controversy within the photo community is the over saturation look of HDR photographs. They don't look "real life" and therefore some photographers complain about the manipulation process. I think they have a point which might surprise you given my images posted on this blog. Professional photographers for years have used multiple images for a certain look and feel that distinguished their work; however, HDR is a manufacturing process not the result of individual work in a darkroom.  For the counter point, I'm a big fan of of HDR but believe the output needs to be toned down for a more realistic look. Expanding the dynamic range of photography is a technology of the future which will continue to revolutionize images for some time to come. But, it is not point and shoot, takes work, fine tuning, and terrific initial image capture to realize the full potential. I think it is a good thing that HDR has a look because that is going to create more work to disguise, improve, and become realistic. In the end, we all benefit from this continued evolution enabling landscapes to be recorded with all the glory of light and color our eyes can see but film and sensors unable to capture. HDR is a new tool, the trick is to make it real not surreal, hard work not magic.