In Camera HDR

Check out here and here the latest cameras from Sony and Pentax, the A550 and K-7 respectively. I am excited about these cameras for one reason: their in camera HDR processing (Follow this link, and this, for images taken using the new HDR feature). Years ago I read an article by Galen Rowell where he theorized that something like this might be possible in the future: "When nature photography goes wholly digital, I’ve got a dream camera in mind that I’d use without ethical constraints. It will make three auto exposures in a split second for highlights, mid-tones and shadows, then render them into a single output."* The future is here, and I have to say that I think this might be one of the most useful camera features ever. Now hopefully Canon will add it to its cameras.

Many of the photos I take involve sunsets or sunrises in rugged areas and require the use of a graduated ND filter, or hours of post processing, to expand the dynamic range of the photo. This new feature—which captures images in rapid succession at different exposures and then merges them using an in-camera processor—makes much of this work unnecessary. Undoubtedly there will still be situations where the dynamic range is too much for this feature to handle, but this goes a long way to solving the problem.

While I am very excited about this, I am also hesitant. Maybe advances like this make me nervous, the same way that old schoolers were hesitant to adopt auto focus or move from film to digital.

But, if the feature works well, it removes one of the key steps problems that many of us face in making great images. Now, the focus is on the photographer even more as the artist and less the technician. The quality of the photo now relies less on our ability to manage the camera and settings, and more on our composition skill.

The way that technology is moving, it seems that pretty soon, the camera will be doing everything for us; algorithms will determine the most pleasing compositions, and the camera will determine the best exposure. All we’ll be needed for is to lug the equipment to the out of doors. Hopefully not :)

*From "Digital Film Images", Outdoor Photographer, December 2000