{"id":5435,"date":"2022-01-22T12:11:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T12:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/22\/how-to-get-more-dynamic-range-from-your-photos\/"},"modified":"2022-01-22T12:11:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T12:11:07","slug":"how-to-get-more-dynamic-range-from-your-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/22\/how-to-get-more-dynamic-range-from-your-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get More Dynamic Range from Your Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

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\"Closeup
Lukmanazis\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There may be a lot of detail in your photos that you aren\u2019t seeing. The good news is that you can often recover this detail by expanding the dynamic range of your photos, making for more balanced and interesting shots.<\/p>\n

What Is Dynamic Range?<\/h2>\n

In photography and videography, dynamic range refers to the range of light visible in a scene<\/a>. It\u2019s often measured in \u201cstops\u201d with the human eye being capable of seeing between 10 to 14 stops. Highlights that go beyond the bounds of a scene\u2019s dynamic range may be blown out, while shadows will be dark and muddy.<\/p>\n

You can see an example of highlights that have been blown out in the image below. Because the subject is dark and takes up much of the image, the camera has favored shadow detail (darker parts) over highlights (lighter parts). Since this was shot on a smartphone, dynamic range is fairly limited compared to cameras with larger sensors.<\/p>\n

\"Blown
Tim Brookes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many modern digital SLR and mirrorless cameras<\/a> exceed the dynamic range visible by the human eye, while cinema cameras are favored for their high dynamic range and ability to capture \u201cflat\u201d images with lots of detail in them. Some image formats retain this invisible data, while other lossy formats like JPEG<\/a> discard it to save space.<\/p>\n

The more dynamic range your camera can capture, the more detail you have available to you when editing your photo. This allows you to do things like increase the luminance of shadows and reduce the intensity of highlights<\/a> so that detail isn\u2019t crushed or blown out.<\/p>\n

The term dynamic range is used in many different fields. High dynamic range (or HDR) televisions<\/a> and monitors are becoming more common, and many smartphones now have the feature too. These displays operate on a similar principle since they can display a higher range of highlights and shadows at any one time compared with older standard dynamic range (SDR) technology.<\/p>\n

Maximizing Dynamic Range on the Camera<\/h2>\n

If you want to get the most out of a photograph, shoot in RAW<\/a> where possible. This format captures as much detail as possible in a scene, including detail you can\u2019t necessarily see using a preview. For this reason, RAW photos are much larger than their JPEG or HEIC<\/a> counterparts.<\/p>\n

For example, a RAW photo of around 24 megapixels from a Sony APS-C mirrorless camera takes up around 25MB of space, while a JPEG on the \u201cFine\u201d setting from the same camera is only around 7MB. Smaller images from a smartphone in HEIC or JPEG format only take up a few megabytes of space.<\/p>\n

\"RAW<\/p>\n

Shooting RAW should be a conscious choice when you know you want to take the photo further in post. You probably don\u2019t want to use RAW for most of your smartphone shots since you would quickly run out of space<\/a> on your device.<\/p>\n

You can shoot in ProRAW on newer iPhones<\/a>\u00a0or use an app that enables RAW capture on older iPhones<\/a>. Android devices can also capture RAW, usually enabled via a toggle on the camera interface. If your stock camera doesn\u2019t support RAW, Android apps like ProCam X<\/a>\u00a0and Open Camera<\/a>\u00a0will enable the feature on most devices.<\/p>\n

\"Sony
Sony<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Smartphones are small and convenient, but they don\u2019t compare to shooting on a digital SLR or mirrorless camera. These devices have much larger sensors which allow more light in, capturing more detail and higher image quality. Many compact cameras including Sony\u2019s RX100 range and Ricoh\u2019s GR cameras shoot RAW too.<\/p>\n

Consider exposure<\/a> when shooting too. If you\u2019re shooting a scene that has both bright highlights and deep shadows, try and place the exposure right in the middle. If you expose for the highlights, the shadows may be harder to recover (and vice versa). You can use your camera\u2019s exposure compensation to tweak the scene, and you may want to\u00a0consult the histogram<\/a> if your camera offers that feature.<\/p>\n

How to Recover Dynamic Range in your Photo Editor<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no single \u201cright way\u201d to edit a photo. You might prefer to do things different from the steps below, and that\u2019s ok. What\u2019s most important is that you understand how the different adjustments affect your photo. The best way to learn is to experiment.<\/p>\n

These steps should work on just about any photo editing software, from premium options like Adobe Camera RAW (Photoshop and Lightroom) to more reasonable options like Affinity Photo. You can even use free software like GIMP<\/a>, Apple\u2019s Photos apps on macOS or mobile, or Google\u2019s Snapseed for Android<\/a> or iOS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To demonstrate, we\u2019ll be using this photo of a campsite at sunset, which already looks pretty good straight out of the camera (a Sony A6500 shot in RAW):<\/p>\n

\"Original
Tim Brookes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the scene is pleasant to look at, a lot of detail is hard to make out. We\u2019ll start by bringing some of that detail back by decreasing the highlights and increasing the shadows:<\/p>\n

\"Adjusting<\/p>\n

The idea here is to \u201cflatten\u201d the image somewhat and reintroduce some of the detail that was missing in the first shot. If we zoom in a little closer, you\u2019ll now be able to see the shape of the sun through the trees:<\/p>\n

\"Visible<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a lot easier to make out the detail in the tent on the left side of the photo:<\/p>\n

\"Visible<\/p>\n

But the image now looks washed out and lacks contrast, so it\u2019s time to reintroduce some of that contrast using (you guessed it) the contrast slider.<\/p>\n

\"Adjusting<\/p>\n

Be careful that you don\u2019t go too far since you risk undoing much of the work we did in the first step.\u00a0Depending on the look you\u2019re going for, you may want to adjust a few additional settings to give the image some pop. You may want to decrease the black point a little, tweak the clarity slider (but not too much) or even adjust the exposure of the image taking care not to blow out highlights or darken the shadows too much.<\/p>\n

\"Finishing<\/p>\n

We have our final image, and it only took a few minutes to get here. We can now see more detail in the tent, the shape of the sun, the color of the sky, and a warmer tone in the leaves:<\/p>\n

\"Final
Tim Brookes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This technique is great for images shot in harsh lighting conditions, where bright highlights are contrasted with dark shadows.<\/p>\n

Go Even Further with HDR and Multiple Exposures<\/h2>\n

You can take this technique much further by shooting multiple photos and combining them into a single image, known as HDR (high dynamic range) photography. There are several drawbacks to this technique, however.<\/p>\n

For good results, the image needs to be identical in each shot. If you have moving elements like waves or leaves, you may end up with weird artifacts<\/a> where the software has struggled to combine the images. It\u2019s also easy to go overboard and make something that looks over-processed and unnatural.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested, read our guide to HDR photography and how you can use it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n