HDR.and tone mapping.

I have been asked for a bit of information about what I'm doing to my pictures.

A lot of the images I post here are HDR or tone mapped.

HDR stands for high dynamic range, tone mapping is more or less blending the shadows/highlights to "map" out the range of tones in an image.

A true HDR image is 32 bit, but there are not many 32 bit printers around, nor will many monitors properly display 32 bit. So to show them properly we tone map the images, compressing the tones. It's the tone mapping that give the distinctive look, here for example is the same image processed to a 32 bit HDR and then tone mapped two different ways. One method gives an almost normal image with lovely range of tones and detail, the other gives an almost graphic rendering, much more dark and moody.

Which is more accurate? Neither is photographically correct, but the first is a lot closer to how our eye sees a scene. Our eyes have the ability to see a huge dynamic range, far more than the camera can capture.