[HDR-photo] HDR as the new digital negative

[listmail at mab3d.com]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 12:29 PM, BillHughey wrote:

> So, my plug for HDR is that it represents a handy digital negative  
> format.  If anyone wants to get into the bits and bytes of RGBE,  
> LogLuv32Tiff, DPX, or DNG  we can.  I am initially interested if  
> anyone was thinking along the lines of using it for archival storage?

I've been thinking along those lines for many years now. For my work  
HDRs I actually archive the camera RAWs along with the "final" HDRs,  
since the creation of HDRs is by no means an "exact science" just as  
RAW processing has not yet been perfected. And, of course, I'm  
learning new things about imaging technologies every day, so my  
workflow changes and some vast improvements can be made to older  
projects!

As a general purpose "digital negative" for all my photography  
(panoramic landscape, mostly), the huge stumbling block (for me) is  
the PITA it is to actually *capture* an HDR image (bracketing,  
composing the HDR in post, etc. - and I've been doing it for 5  
years!). Even using CanonHDRcap or custom software to automate the  
process, the requirement of a tethered laptop (and a tripod, since  
I'm not that dextrous) takes the HDR out of any "fleeting moment"  
shots. AEB is a nice "fallback" but many natural light scenes are  
beyond such a limited range. Like you say, sometime in the (near)  
future, we will be able to display more than our cameras can capture  
in even 3 quick shots. The lack of in-camera support for serious HDR  
capture and creation is why I deal with the 12-bit RAW format for my  
archives and hope that Dave Coffin keeps up with his dcraw work.

-Mark