3765 - Slightly Cool, Slightly Warm


HDR is an invention of the “Digital Age” of photography. It just wouldn’t have been possible with film.

These days I mostly shun the technique. Dynamic range has become pretty good, even on “inferior” small sensors like those of Micro Four Thirds cameras. Still, there are situations like this, I on top of a tower, taking images into the sunset, where HDR tremendously helps with shadow detail.

Once you have your bracketed exposures, guesswork begins. What is the correct white balance? There is no right or wrong here. In retrospect I prefer the warmer colors and lighter tonality of the image that ended up as Image of the Day, but that’s largely a matter of taste.


There are 2 comments

Richard   (2017-02-10)

Hi Andreas, firstly that's a nice picture and evokes how you would have seen it. The human eye is very adaptable! It's interesting what you say about HDR images. I don't share a love of them either, despite playing extensively with the process (inspired by your earlier work, I have to say). I also shoot Micro Four Thirds and these days I go for more blocked up images, such as you would get from a transparency film. Blacks and shadows are good! I'm also mindful of the limits of my equipment (Mk 1 EM-5D) This is inspired partly because I grew up shooting slide film and also because of photographers such as Saul Leiter, Fred Herzog, Pete Turner. Masters of contrast!

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andreas   (2017-02-10)

Thanks. As to equipment, in reality it does not really matter. I'd say my D200 was not "good enough", but the D300 certainly was. So was everything that came after it. The OM-D E-M5 MkI definitely is "good enough". When I bought the D200 in 2006, the Canon 1Ds MkII was the Holy Grail. ~8000€ for 16 megapixels. A resolution only the most professional of professionals could afford, and it allowed them to shoot billboards. Well, so can you 🙂 I made a few nice images over the last years. Would they have been better with today's equipment or that of ten years ahead? Certainly, but not in an important way. In other words: equipment does not really matter 🙂

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