Saturday, November 10, 2012

Adobe's "Secret" Gift to HDR Users



By Glenn Randall 
  

On May 29 this year, Adobe released Lightroom 4.1. I dutifully upgraded from 4.0, expecting no more than the usual bug fixes and support for new cameras. It was, after all, merely a "decimal point" release. I was quite surprised to learn several months later that Lightroom 4.1 had actually introduced a new feature not found in 4.0: the ability to tone-map 32-bit HDR images. To me, this is huge: you can now process 32-bit images using all of Lightroom's powerful, sophisticated, and familiar controls, with full access to all the information in the 32-bit file, in a completely non-destructive manner. Thirty-two-bit HDR files can cover a much broader range of brightness values than 16-bit raw files. If you shoot in high-contrast light but hate the surreal "HDR" look, Adobe's gift is a breakthrough.


 

The finished photo after tone-mapping in Lightroom.

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