High Dynamic Range

Dynamic range is the range of light that can be captured in a photo, from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlight. Digital camera sensors (or film in traditional cameras), unlike the human eye, can only capture a limited dynamic range when photographing in extreme light conditions or dark environments. For instance, a landscape will have a vast dynamic range of light that cameras are not able to completely capture, and photos either have enough exposure of shaded areas (like the mountain) but with blown highlights in the sky, or have clear blue sky but with dark shades. A bright outdoor or dark indoor scene most often also have exposure problems, resulting in darkly lit subjects or washed out highlights.

PhotoImpact's High Dynamic Range (HDR) compensates for a digital camera's limitations, and tries to resolve exposure problems that photographers frequently encounter when shooting photos that contain dramatic differences between light and shades. It produces an optimized image by combining different copies of the same scene and uses different exposure levels to extend its perceivable tonal range. To produce such an image, multiple shots with different exposures are first combined into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image which will record the complete tonal information combined from all the shots. This information is then used to produce a final optimized image.

The three photos on the left were taken with different exposure levels then combined into a single image to create the properly exposed image.

Enhancing the dynamic range of an image with SmartCurves

You can enhance the dynamic range of an image by directly applying a camera curve to an image. For further details about camera curve profile, see Creating a camera curve profile.

To enhance the dynamic range of an image with SmartCurves: Select Photo: Light - SmartCurves. Select a camera curve from the Use camera curve list. Tip: You can create your own camera curve in the High Dynamic Range dialog box. Click OK.