HDR Photography: Good Or Evil?

In today’s modern world of tech gadgets and smart phones, not to mention apps such as Instagram, everyone is seemingly a ‘amateur professional’ photographer.  The access to filtration and settings such as HDR allow an average photo to turn into the best thing since sliced bread.  The photo below helps you understand what HDR can do to an average snapshot.

via Kevin Ambrose
via Kevin Ambrose

The Capital Weather Gang published an article yesterday raising an interesting question…is HDR photography enhancing or defiling how we see weather and nature?

The following is a snippet taken from the article:

Even the begrudging HDR holdouts will tell you that it’s not going anywhere, especially given it’s being added directly into the features of more and more cameras as time passes. In many ways the ideas behind HDR are not new either. Photographers have been using light filters over their lenses for ages, they’ve been burning and dodging in light rooms to bring out highlights and soften shadows.

As photographers, we owe it to consumers to not go overboard. This is more difficult in practice than in contemplation, especially the more comfortable you get with using HDR. As sharers, folks should be cognizant when proliferating heavily manipulated images. If nothing else, maybe it’s not quite truly amazing.

HDR imagery, when done well, can look very cool.  Some HDR is very true-to-life and most people enjoy viewing HDR even if the images begin to approach surreal.  It’s OK to include the true-to-life HDR with weather reports and in CWG with a note in the credit line that it’s HDR.  The surreal HDR images can be considered on a case-by-case basis.  Also, if an image is not manipulated but looks like HDR, it’s worth noting that in the credit line too.

It’s often hard to tell what’s real and what’s HDR.

Make sure you check out the rest of the article, which hits on a variety of topics related photography, with a focus on HDR and its impacts on the weather world.  Several examples they offer help you understand and actually visualize what HDR has to offer.  After reading it, make your own opinion…

HDR Photography: Good or Evil?