Is HDR ever a correct exposure

The other day, I had a conversation with a person on twitter in response to a twitter message that was "HDR photography = I don't want to care about getting the best exposure for the scene". I had made the post because after having finished reading the book Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera I could not see a reason for most images that were done in HDR on flick to have been. The only reason I could come up with was because the photographer either was too lazy to determine, just didn't care, or didn't know how to achieve the desired exposure for the scene. This twitter user (we will call him Mr. X) responded to my original post with "or HDR = I want all areas of my scene to be properly exposed."

Now, I thought about this for a bit and wondered. Why would an artist want everything in the scene to be completely exposed? You lose so much contrast and pop of an image when you do this. There are no real dark area (negative space) and too much lit area (positive space) for a good photograph. To me, this tends to make the final image flat.

Mr. X continued to try and support the need for HDR by the standard "Well, sometimes you can not properly expose a scene in one shot." Now, what a minute. Your eye can not expose some scenes completely either, so why should a camera? The brain combines multiple exposure of a scene, yes. But really, the brain is no where near capable of doing what HDR is, so what is HDR attempting to do? Photography has always been the attempt to capture a moment as one remembers seeing it through their eyes. Is HDR achieving this results, or is technology attempting to create things that we didn't realize when we see the scene?

All in all, I guess the best way that I can describe how I feel about HDR is by putting it in the following way. To me, HDR is like taking a multiple choice bubble test in which you don't really know what the correct answer is, so instead of making a choice, you decide to fill in every bubble. Now, are you answering the question correctly or not. I mean you have filled in the answer that is correct, but you have also filled in the answers that are incorrect. The same is with HDR. Somewhere in the HDR you have correctly exposed the scene, but mixed with that correct exposure is several incorrect ones. What do you think is the correct answer: HDR or one exposure that best fits the scene?

Space Needle and the park

Space Needle and the park, originally uploaded by wizetux.

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls, originally uploaded by wizetux.

Mt Si

Mt Si, originally uploaded by wizetux.

So last weekend, Heather and I decided to get out of the house and take a drive up to the north part of the greater Seattle area. Mostly, because Heather wanted to eat at Port of Subs in Mill Creek. On our way back, we decided to head towards Fall City by way of Snoqualmie and stop off at the falls. Now, I have been wanting to go to the falls for almost the entire time that we have been out here, but we always had a reason for not getting out to them (even though they are only about 20 minutes away.) But seeing how Heather had gone to the falls while her friend Molly was out here and I was not able to go with them, she thought it would be a good thing to do. The Snoqualmie falls was very beautiful, and I have some really good shots of them that I still need to process, but on the way back, we past this meadow with a perfect view of Mt. Si. I just had to stop and get the shot. This is that shot.

I tried to incorporate several of the techniques that I have read about in many of the photography books and podcast that I have listen too since starting my photography journey. This time, I knew that just taking the shot of the mountain would make the image very flat and boring, so I decided to put the wooden posts into the foreground to give more depth to the image. I feel that the goal was achieved very well. However, having taken this shot, I do realize now that I need a much better wide angle lens with clearer glass, for the mountain came out fuzzy in the final image. Whether this has to do with the camera only being a 6.1 Megepixal sensor or the glass, I am not sure, but I will try the glass first, because I can always use the glass more than another camera body.

exercise in patterns #1

exercise in patterns #1, originally uploaded by wizetux.

In an effort to better my photography, I have decided to go back and study some more of the fundementals of art, visual design, and composition. This is the first of the series that I will be putting together.

So today, Heather and I went to Half Price Books and I was able to pick up a book on the art of photography. It covers the elements of compositions, and the philosophy that can be seen in others photographic works. It should be a very interesting read, and looking forward to my journey in exploring basic elements of design/composition.

You said you would go for a ride with me.

You said you would go for a ride with me., originally uploaded by wizetux.

A rework of a previous image. Did much more clean up of the water, and some other color treatments.

I reworked the image so that I could print it as a large format.

Reflections of a product

Reflections of a product, originally uploaded by wizetux.

The projected reflection of the can onto a the table top.

I find it very interesting that the reflection of the white letters from the can actually show up as black on the table with a white halo. Not really sure why this is.