The new HDR photography - all you need to know

Vancouver, Canada by night

Hey man this new thing they have discovered in photography now is great man. It is amazing how photography has evolved now in the digital age.

I looked at him, pointed to my screen on an image I was working on and said. You mean like this.

He looked at it with a strange expression on his face and then turned to me.
"This is not an HDR image man. This looks nothing like an HDR image and he quickly grabbed his notebook opened it, and up on the screen pops a horrific mess of partly washed out shadows and strange color like you will only get in real life if you hang out with heavy acid dropping hippies stranded in the 70s.

I looked back at him and asked. Do you know what HDR stands for?

Yeh, of course I do. I mean a, I did read the wiki about it. This is it man. Where have you been man. Locked up in some old school darkroom or what? You have to get your self a new memory chip man. And some new screen card. Your eyes are outdated. Cant you see this new wonder. I mean, why could you guy''''''''s not figure this out sooner. Thank god for new technology. Now we are making some real art man.

I looked at him somewhat puzzled and asked grumpily: Do you know Ansel Adams the zone system or the Weston''''''''s (the first two names that popped up in my mind) or are their work to complicated for your instant generation. Do you know what they where after in photography. Do you know any of the old large format guys. Do you know any of the young large format guys. Do you know any film photographers at all.

He looked at me with surprise and shock in eyes. Large format. Is that some new printer out. I have not read about that one. What dose it have in dpi.

No I said shaking my head. I am talking about Large format film.

Oh film. Film is so old school man. You got to get your self updated man. Your slow spinning hard-drive is crashing from those old school methods. Common to the new world of photography man. There are new rules now. Every thing is new now. You got to try this new HDR photography. Its no blast from the past. Its the new thing.

Abbey Fontany, Burgundy, France

I looked at him inn horror and now let my self loose. You know, HDR IS A BLAST FROM THE PAST!! I was striving towards HDR both in film and in digital long before you even got to be a dirty look in your fathers eyes.

Common man no need to get angry about being outdated man. I can give you the web address to read up on this. You have to move to version 2.0 in life he said

I looked at him once again and gave it a one more try. Lets give him a chance, he is young.

HDRi stands for High Dynamic Range image. I do know that. It means getting as much information from the motive into your end image as possible. We used to get this through exposing the film one way, develop in a certain way and then by finally master the print. plush or minus developing we called it some times.
If not done this way it was done through filtering the film, the lens, the the desired development and then print.

You could also do it through, in camera masking or multiple exposure with lens masking over long period of time. Some times one image would take a day to make, Moving the film between cameras or the paper between enlargers.There where all kinds of different styles to making HDR image long before the computer even was born.This is just to name you few of the OLD SCHOOL work methods in HDR photography.

There is nothing new to HDR images. The HDR imaging as you know it is just some freaked out, hyped up, soul messed shit on acid.

Oh he said, cool down man, maybe I do need to do some more reading. But It said there on the wiki that this was it.

Yeh I said. I now. The wiki is only right half the time. Do you know how to read books? I can give you a couple of them on how to achieve this and what this is all about.All you need to know is that this is nothing new and can be achieved in thousands of ways.

He looked at me in horror. Books. You are so out dated man. You got any of them on podcast?