“Like” HDR? “Don’t like” HDR?? Erm, I don’t like or dislike this particular photographic technique... any more than I like or dislike grey grad filters, or polarisers, or any other tool in the photographic box. For some subjects (cityscapes, interiors, sunsets, etc...) HDR is very useful, no doubt about it.
My probem isn’t with HDR... it’s HDR used badly or inappropriately. By ‘badly’, I mean the effect is too strong, too strident, too apocalyptic: as folk have noted, too much like a still from a computer game. By ‘inappropriately’, I mean used on pictures in a way that makes them look worse, not better!
The basic techniques of HDR don’t seem too hard to grasp. The hard bit is creating satisfying pictures that don’t just rely on ‘shock value’. One of the worst uses of HDR is to ‘spice up’ a dull picture, ‘cos it will still just be a dull picture. It would be like bolting fins and spoilers on a Trabant...
I like to see good photographs, with subtlety... not photographs that ‘scream’ HDR. Viewing a few dozen ‘over-cooked’ HDR pictures is like eating a whole box of chocolates; you can end up feeling rather queasy...
In this shot I was trying to keep colour in the sky AND detail in the wooden hull of this boat. I’ll keep experimenting with HDR – when it seems appropriate – but I feel I’ve got a lot to learn. I want pictures to look good... but also as natural as possible. I expect, too, that the software will improve (I use Photomatix), to address some of the drawbacks.
