HDRs ain't what they used to be?

#1

Call me crazy but I have a suspicion that HDRI these days don’t have the same dynamic range they used to.

If I remember correctly HDR Shop would calculate the difference between the exposures to give an accurate intensity for the pixel whereas nowadays with Photoshop and such simply blend between the provided exposures and don’t have range above or below what’s provided.

Does anyone else think Debevec’s HDRs from 1998 have a better range than today’s HDRs? Is it more to do with operator error or a dodgy response curve algorithm?

#2

Try picturenaut for creating the hdr files. http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/
It also shows you the dynamic range of an image at the bottom.

But you can easily check it yourself. Just dial down the exposure of the image until the sun becomes gray or dial it up until the black parts become gey. The amount of stops that lies between those values define the dynamic range.

#3

HDRShop never did anything different to what photoshop does now. If you don’t have as much information in the high end of your HDRIs, all it means is you need to shoot more darker exposures…

#4

I remember Debevec saying that he had to use neutral density filters on the fastest shutter speed to prevent the sun from being over exposed. This is a lot of effort, I’m sure a lot of people don’t bother with this so I’m sure a lot of HDRs don’t contain the full dynamic range that they could.

#5

unless you use use hdri’s where the sun is somewhat dimmed by clouds, which is what happens (here) most of the time anyway, that helps reduce the intensity of the sun allot. Its a usefull trick to make full range hdri’s :smiley:

Or you can boost the sun’s intensity manually in photoshop

#6

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