Rant about HDR

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  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited August 8, 2010
    Ziggy, I am amazed by the discussions about HDR among photographers, while a brief stroll through an Art Museum will clearly demonstrate that painters have dealt with "tone=mapping" highlights and shadows to fit the dynamic range of oil on canvas ( which is vastly less than the dynamic range of highlights to shadows in the real world ) for centuries.....

    Why is it so upsetting to photographers? I think, maybe, it is because for so long we were limited to "Kodachrome prints" in printed material for most of our lives. I love Kodachrome, but it handled shadow detail very poorly, as do most positive transparency films.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • RocketManRocketMan Registered Users Posts: 236 Major grins
    edited August 9, 2010
    pathfinder wrote: »
    Ziggy, I am amazed by the discussions about HDR among photographers, while a brief stroll through an Art Museum will clearly demonstrate that painters have dealt with "tone=mapping" highlights and shadows to fit the dynamic range of oil on canvas ( which is vastly less than the dynamic range of highlights to shadows in the real world ) for centuries.....

    Why is it so upsetting to photographers? I think, maybe, it is because for so long we were limited to "Kodachrome prints" in printed material for most of our lives. I love Kodachrome, but it handled shadow detail very poorly, as do most positive transparency films.

    Perhaps its not so much an objection to the process itself but rather a reaction to how often it is "abused", overdone, etc. ? There are (or seem to be based on threads I've seen on a number of forums) those feel the same about any post processing of digital images, as if film was "pure" and unaltered once shot. Mostly I suppect because they have come into photography since the time of film or never worked a darkroom, whereas those who started when flim was the only option and did dark room work know we did just as much post-processing then as we do now in digital.

    RM
    http://roadrunes.com
    "It's better to bite the hand that feeds you, than to feed the hand that bites you" - Me :D
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