P#18 Q6B: What Do You Wish You Had Known When You Started Doing High Dynamic Range Imaging?

Time Waits For No Man

Tony Sweet: I wish that I started getting into high dynamic range imaging sooner. I kind of blew it off when I first heard about it years ago, like some of the purists from the film days back in the Mesozoic era. Now I wish I had been more flexible to just jump into it.

I'm into it now, but I came a couple of years late. I wish I would've got into it a whole lot sooner. That's pretty much it, but it's better late than never, you know?

Audri Lanford: In the scheme of things, you're still a very early adopter in this technology.

Tony Sweet: It's been around since 1937.

Audri Lanford: Wow! That I didn't know.

Tony Sweet: I forget the pioneer's name. You can go into Wikipedia under "high dynamic range" or "HDR" and read about him. High dynamic range imaging started out in very esoteric areas and didn't become accessible to us until a consumer-oriented software package, like Photomatix, became available. This technology has been around for more than 70 years.

[Editor's Note: The developer's name is Charles Wyckoff and you can read about him here.]

Audri Lanford: Wow, I had no idea.

Tony Sweet: It's fascinating how long this had been around before it became consumer driven.

Audri Lanford: Yes. I thought high dynamic range imaging was just introduced in the last four or five years. I heard about it about a year and a half ago, but I know that probably seventy to eight percent of our subscribers haven't. Or they might have heard of it, but they don't really know what it is.

Tony Sweet: Absolutely. I see that all the time, but it's growing quickly.

Audri Lanford: Yeah, and it is definitely an exciting area.

Tony Sweet: I think it's the future to be honest with you. That's why I got into it big time.

Speaking of the Future

Audri Lanford: You know, I want to ask you -- one of the predictions my husband Jim and I have is that HDR, in some number of years, is going to be available on the point-and-shoots.

Tony Sweet: Oh, it won't be long.

Audri Lanford: Do you think that's true too?

Tony Sweet: It's certainly in one of the Pentax camera bodies, believe it or not.

Audri Lanford: I didn't know that.

Tony Sweet: I'm sure some of your subscribers have the camera. They may or may or not know the feature that's even on there but there's an HDR feature on one of the Pentax cameras right now. It's starting.

Audri Lanford: This is not an off-the-wall kind of prediction.

Tony Sweet: No, not at all. Anything that can make the camera see what you're seeing with your eyes is not an off-the-wall prediction. It's just an obvious extension of what's happening now.

To Conclude

So what does Tony wish he had known sooner? As it happens, it's not "knowing" about HDR photography as much Tony wishes he had acted on that knowledge sooner. After all, high dynamic range imaging has been around for decades. But if our predictions hold true -- it seems that the future holds quite a few amazing developments.