Is HDR Photography Bad? Is It Ok To Use It? Or Is It Cheating?

Hi and welcome to Episode 112 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google. Well, there is a bit of Google in this one. So thank you Google.

Before I go on I need your help. I need your questions to answer. More on this at the end but please have a think while you listen to this.

Here is the answery bit.

HDR Photography is a technique that helps photographers capture more data in the lights and the darks of a photo. HDR Photography uses images taken at different exposures which are merged together in post-processing. HDR Photography allows photographers to capture a broader range of tones, but still not as broad as the amazing human eye.

HDR is high dynamic range.

HDR Photography is not cheating, and not a bad thing.

And yes it is ok to use it.

OK – that was my answer. Now I am going to explain this, whilst bracing myself for a barrage of erm, well negativity. More on that in the talky bit. Let’s stick to the photographic facts first.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

First, what is dynamic range?

There are many definitions of what dynamic range is in photography, relating to tones, contrast, ratios, values, light intensities, highlights and shadows, lights and darks, and blacks and whites.

Adobe says

“Dynamic range is the measurement between the maximum and minimum values that can be perceived in an image or video”.

I quite like that.

And Wikipedia says this

“Dynamic range is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light.”

Not that helpful for me but always worth checking.

But what does this actually mean?

Yes, I have done some research to help me explain this simply, factually, and of course correctly.

Here are some real-world examples of dynamic ranges

The human eye – about 21 stops of light for the “average” human eye
Me with my eyes closed – 0 stops

Me with my eyes open? Probably a lot less than 21 stops. Just saying.

Sorry. Back to reality.

The best cameras – about 14 stops of light
My Canon 6D – circa 11 stops

My Olympus EM5 – circa 10 stops
My iPhone XS – circa 12 stops

And there’s more

The amount of dynamic range depends of course on the content of a composition.
The ISO also has an influence on the dynamic range that you can capture.
The quality of the data varies too. So the 11 stops on my Canon 6D are not all at the highest quality.

And the number of stops quoted above are all in optimum conditions.

So many complications, and other considerations, it is not a case of black and white. Pun intended.

But I am going to stick to the important bits – the bits that will help us as photographers.

The facts

A camera cannot capture in a single image what the human eye sees.
HDR Photography allows you to capture more of the range of lights and darks that we see with our own eyes.

More than we can capture without using it.

Still not as much as the human eye sees.

And that is it. It is not that complicated. We just need to stick to the facts.

How do I create an HDR photograph?

Simple.

Take three photos. One is the correct exposure. One two stops overexposed. One two stops underexposed. Merge them together. This is how I do it. And I use Lightroom to merge the photos together.

And no, you cannot tell that I have done this.

And you can also do this entirely in camera, getting a single, high dynamic range photo. A photo with more of the lights and darks in it.

A practical example.

I am photographing the interior of a room on a sunny day. There is a lovely view which I want to capture. My Canon 6D will not be able to capture the bright content of the window as well as what is in the shadows of a room.

So I use HDR to get both ends of the scale, in this case, the content of the window and the shadows in the room, and everything else in between of course.

And what is wrong with that?

The hidden benefit

HDR image capture gives much more latitude and less chance of getting the exposure wrong. Sure you still need to use the right camera settings, but the extra two stops either way help get a good exposure.

Why do people say it is wrong?

Well, I get the fact that back in the day there were awful, artificial, grungy-looking photos. I completely get that, and I agree completely. And I did that bad stuff so I know.

But done carefully, to produce natural images with more lights and darks – I do not see the problem with that.

I have penciled in another episode though to answer all the criticism I am expecting for this.

Why is it not cheating?

Well, it isn’t. If someone did this in Photoshop using layers would we call this cheating? If we did this using brushes in Photoshop would anyone complain?

No. That is fine. But for some reason, HDR is cheating to some.

The talky bit

HDR Photography has had bad press for many years. This goes back to the early days of HDR Photography when there were all those horribly over-processed, grungy photos. There was a process called tone mapping, where software did all sorts of stuff.

And yes, I was guilty of this very thing myself.

So why is it ok?

Done properly, all you are doing is gathering more of the lights and darks in a scene – what can be wrong with that?

In the example above, with the room with the window, this can be adjusted in Photoshop or other software after, but by using HDR you are correctly exposing for the window, the room, and the darker parts of the interior when you take the photos, and merging them together.

There is nothing wrong with that.

If I had a camera that could capture 21 stops of light like the amazing human eye I would not need HDR. But the fact is this – a camera cannot record the same dynamic range as the human eye.

Fact.

Now a bit of a digression here, but isn’t the human body amazing? 21 incredible stops. And we humans cannot make a camera that replicates that in one photo. Pretty amazing indeed.

HDR done badly is wrong.

HDR done well is fine. So fine that no one would ever know.

One other thing

I do not think that High Dynamic Range, or HDR, is a helpful term anymore. It does not reflect what is actually happening, and implies things that it is not. What would I call it? I am not sure, I will have a think about that. Or continue to use it and just not tell anyone.

No one else knows or cares to be honest, this is just an unnecessary argument within the world of photography.

But what would you call it, dear listener?

What do I do?

I use HDR all the time. It helps me capture the range of lights and darks in a scene. I do not need to worry as much about the exposure, and it reduces the chances of getting an under or over-exposed photo.

And it helps me concentrate on the composition.

I use HDR and make no apologies for this.

What do you do? Let me know.

Big takeaway

HDR photography is merely a technique to capture more lights and darks. It is that simple. And there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong at all.

Related episodes

Check out the episode page on the podcast website to find out what I have spoken about so far, and especially the last 10 or so episodes all about camera settings.

Next episode

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 113 – Auto Exposure Bracketing – What Is It? How Can It Help You? This is the logical next thing to talk about, and a way of doing HDR without saying that you are doing HDR. Don’t worry, it will all make sense!

Shout out

Shout out to me – well why not?

Get your question answered.

This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions. So please get in touch with your question, and not only will I answer your question, but I will give you a shout-out on that episode, which is nice. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

OK – I’m done

Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out the podcast website, which is photographyexplainedpodcast.com/.

This episode was brought to you by a cheese and pickle sandwich.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick