Computational Photography Technology » HDR-High Dynamic Range Imaging

HDR Video for Canon DSLR Cameras

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:37:04 +0000

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods.

Magic Lantern has developed firmware fad-on that will enable HDR video on Canon T2i (550D) T3i (600D) and 60D HD DSLR Cameras an it’s FREE! We’ve been expecting HDR Video Cameras to become the norm for years and this is a big leap in that direction. So much effort is going into 3D camera development that HDR isn’t getting it’s fair due. This firmware ad-on solution will likely turn a lot of heads and start a movement in the industry toward HDR video cameras development & design.

The firmware ad-on does not overwrite Canons camera firmware, it ads on to it. The Free firmware ad-on can be downloaded here http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Release_2011Dec22

HDR imaging is a technique that combines images with a range of exposures to provide higher range of detail from shadow to highlight. Photographers were doing this manually long before digital imaging, but digital solutions make it much easier and feasible, even for video. HDR Video has been accomplished by using multiple cameras in the past, but I’m not aware of any mainstream solutions like Magic Lantern’s firmware will provide. The firmware switches exposure between frames and creates two videos which can later be edited back together to to create a single High Dynamic Range Video. Many advanced still photographers are accomplished HDR technicians. The thought of combining 30FPS Video is mind boggling but today’s computational imaging hardware and software is capable of such mind boggling feats.

Magic Lantern’s first firmware add-on enhanced the sound and video capabilities of the Canon 5D Mark II. Sadly, the HDR Video firmware ad-on will not support the 5D Mark II or the 7D. Below is a video outlining the capabilities of the Canon 5D Firmware add-on. This video explains how the firmware ad-on works.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Has Shipped!

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:18:24 +0000

The latest incarnation of Adobe’s Creative Suite, CS5, has been shipped, and is available for purchase. A main point of interest for us at Foto Tech is the new HDR Pro feature of Photoshop CS5. HDR Pro is an new tool that allows the user to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) images within photoshop itself. Having not tested it personally, it seems to have potential, though tests show that HDR Pro may not be as refined as existing HDR software. Nevertheless, HDR Pro will make a welcome addition to the feature set of Photoshop CS5.

With the new software release comes a new batch of resources to help you learn how to use it. These include a number of books, as well as online resources, such as the video tutorials from Lynda.com and Adobe TV.

HDR Tutorial Videos

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:50:57 +0000

HDR and Photoshop

HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) can be daunting to start with, but once you start you’ll never stop. There are very few times when I don’t shoot an exposure bracket so that I have HDR options; even handheld. I don’t always merge the images into a 32bit file, but I usually combine bracketed exposures in some manner to expand and manipulate dynamic range.

Digital Imaging author and trainer, Colin Smith, has a number of tutorial videos out that are a good place to start your HDR training. He did the tutorial videos for Photomatix, which is a must have application for HDR. Colin’s PhotoshopCAFE website has lots of other useful digital imaging videos.