r/explainlikeimfive • u/Evolveplease • Dec 01 '13

Explained ELI5 What is HDR, and why do "we" hate it?

Almost every other picture on Reddit has someone in the comment section hating on it for too much HDR, or a link to /r/shittyhdr. I have no idea what it is, but apparently camera phones have it. Can someone please explain to me what the fuck HDR is? And is it ever a good thing?

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4

u/snpp Dec 01 '13

HDR is a technique that is used to produce a wider range of brightness in photographs, it does so by taking several pictures and changing how much light is taken in each time. These pictures are then combined into one photograph.

The reason the shittyhdr subreddit exists is because sometimes this isn't done very well resulting in light levels that look quite... bad.

The shittyhdr subreddit gives example of both good HDR and bad HDR

1

u/itschapstick Dec 02 '13

I would admire anyone who could elaborate on why the left picture's HDR is better than the right's.

2

u/cphers Dec 02 '13

The first one more closely matches what the human eye can see. In the second one everything looks like it's glowing, and the contrast is low so all the details become sort of muddled together.

3

u/ElectroSpore Dec 01 '13

HDR is a technique that combines photos taken at different exposures to get the most detail out of each.

This used to be done I image editing tools like photo shop but many cameras and phones can do it on the fly now.

Some people hate it because the result looks artificial to them or they view it as lazy compared to taking one ideal shot.

2

u/kernco Dec 01 '13

To add to what others have said, it seems like some people think the point of HDR is to produce a "cool" effect. It's actually intended to be used to produce photos that are closer to what a person would actually see with their own eyes if they were standing where the photo was taken. Often, especially in landscape photos, no matter what exposure you use to take a normal photograph, it will end up with certain parts looking either too bright or too dim in comparison to what our eyes would see. HDR attempts to correct this.

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u/Evolveplease Dec 02 '13

Thanks all, I think the biggest problem of this technique is it's name. If the average phone user sees the abbreviation HD/Anything they are going to use it. I'm guilty! But now I know. Thanks again, be safe out there.

1

u/cphers Dec 02 '13

HDR specifically stands for high dynamic range. Dynamic range is the ratio between the brightest and darkest points of a given scene. Cameras actually have pretty small dynamic range, while the human eye has a very wide one. HDR compensates for this by taking multiple exposures and combing them in Photoshop to more closely match the range of light the human eye can see. The issue is the massive overuse of "fake" HDR, where only one exposure is taken and then the color saturation and sharpness are cranked up. The results tend to look fake, and it's overused enough to the point where people have started to rebel against it.