12.06.2006

HDR


This photograph was constructed using a relatively new technology called High Dynamic Range imaging (HDR). A computer program compiles bracketed exposures of a single scene into one image with a contrast ratio of about 100 times what a normal computer screen can reproduce. The resulting file can be "tone-mapped" to a normal dynamic range (somewhat analogous to multi-band audio compression/limiting) such that much more detail is visible, and contrast can be boosted locally instead of globally. The resulting images are often quite beautiful, if a little unreal.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before this particular micro-aesthetic becomes an annoying visual cliché, like dozens of Photoshop effects already have. Can it then still be "beautiful"?

For that matter, does technological development of this kind actually spring from need --- or is it more simply novelty for novelty's sake? That is, to what extent does technological development respond to actual needs, versus creating by its onward march a felt lack that would not have been perceived otherwise? Perhaps need and development feedback positively. I am of course talking about consumer technology here, those developments which are targeted at a buying public. I suppose it could be argued that we don't need 99% of what gets developed for these markets. If technology does address needs, it almost always exceeds them too, creating a gap in which we realize that what we have must not be enough ("Ooo, I want that"). The amplification of this gap is accomplished through advertising --- forcing us to acknowledge the obsolescence of what we have, to usher in the novelty of what we do not.

Considering this particular case, I had thought about this issue as a "problem" before. But I might have accepted it as a limitation of the medium, since display media have greater limitations than the associated recording media. Now technology enables me to work around those limitations --- but what I produce in so doing is not more lifelike, it is in fact less so. As such, the new process seems less addressed toward solving an existing problem than it is toward generating a "gee-whiz" reaction. When the novelty wears off, does the technology remain worthwhile?

Which came first, the disease or the drug?

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7 Comments:

Blogger bcwhite said...

The human eye can handle a contrast ratio of about 1,000,000 to 1 for any given scene. Most monitors can do a maximum of about 1000 to 1 and print has trouble above 250 to 1. If you want to print what the eyes can see, you have to compress the range. And since a digital camera is limited to about 250 to 1, you have to play tricks like multiple exposures to capture it.

I did my own high dynamic range experiment with a sunset when I first got my D80.

12/06/2006 4:28 PM  
Blogger M. Weed said...

I agree with you --- traditional media don't come close to capturing what we actually see. I think my questions arise when I look at HDR material and it doesn't match what my eyes see. There is more "information" present than in an LDR image, but it doesn't more closely reflect the qualitative experience of seeing in the situation. In fact, it looks "less real" than an LDR image (maybe that's because photography has trained me to look at a picture a certain way).

That's why I don't think HDR is actually addressing the technical limitation itself --- seems like display media would require more attention if we're really trying to reproduce the qualitative sensation of seeing a given environment. HDR is making something different out of the same data... and only time will tell whether or not that something remains attractive.

12/06/2006 8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good looking picture. Reminds me of Half-Life. Yes I am a nerd!

and Matt, what is the best converge album?

12/07/2006 11:04 AM  
Blogger bcwhite said...

It would be fun to have one of the new HDR monitors that can do around 200,000 to 1 contrast. Still, in the end I want to show printed material.

12/07/2006 1:27 PM  
Blogger M. Weed said...

Yeah I think I prefer printed material as well, but maybe that's because I'm a traditionalist at heart (I still like film and all-manual cameras best). :) To a certain extent I find physical paper (especially darkroom prints, as opposed to inkjets) much more "honest" than a screen image. And I think that honesty is something I've been really interested in with regard to photography and its development. But I suppose any organic, manual process necessarily has limitations in how and what it can represent.

Sergei, I think Jane Doe is the best Converge record. But that's just my opinion.

12/07/2006 1:44 PM  
Blogger Hillary said...

You know how I feel.

12/28/2006 12:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Haha thanks! I'm only asking because I really can't tell. Same with ISIS and Neurosis, though Given to the Rising has it all. I think it kinda sums up its history.

Well Jane Doe it is! I always love your opinions.

Again, congratulations!

3/28/2007 6:09 AM  

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