The HDR (High Dynamic Range) look has been around in still photography for quite some time, but it’s only recently become more popular in film. There are only a few cinema cameras capable of shooting with true HDR settings (such as the RED Dragon), but if you’re after this look and have limited resources, you can achieve a similar aesthetic in release.
Before we begin, for those of you who are not familiar with HDR imaging, take a look at this example photo, taken from realreeljournal.com:
HDR works by exposing two images and then combining them in post to maintain as much latitude as possible. One of the images is overexposed and the other is underexposed, so when you merge the two images together you end up with a final photo like the one above, which has a lot of dynamic range – letting the highlights and shadows stay Very detailed. This look shouldn’t be overused as it really only works in certain situations, but it’s a good tool to have in mind so you know how to use it when you need it.
HDR is also an interesting technology for faces, as it can reveal details in skin tones that wouldn’t be noticed on regularly exposed photos. In many cases, this is a bad thing, as HDR can expose pores, blemishes, and other skin issues, making the subject look terrible – but in some cases, the look works well, especially when you’re doing Some things are highly stylized. Here is an example of how HDR affects skin tones, Excerpt from Willian Yu on Flickr:
As you might imagine, achieving an HDR look with video is more challenging than with still images. In still photography, even if your camera doesn’t have an HDR mode, you can simply shoot two different exposures and combine them using Photoshop. However, with video, this is usually not an option as the action will always be different in the frames you capture. For example, if you film a person walking across the frame, you won’t be able to have that person walk across the frame multiple times at the exact same time (in order to later combine two identical shots), so the only option is to capture this look in-camera For example) is to use a camera like the RED Dragon that does HDR internally.
The good news is that if you want to achieve an HDR look in post, there’s a lot you can do to simulate the effect – even if you’re not shooting with an HDR cinema camera.
How to achieve an HDR look
The first thing I want to point out is that in order to get the best results using this technique, you need to start with well-exposed footage. If a window is blown out in the background, that detail will never be recovered – so if you really want to sell the HDR look, make sure you shoot with the look in mind so that you can keep as much dynamic range as possible in the camera . From there, it all depends on how you go about post-processing.
There are many ways you can achieve this look in your posts, but today I’m going to share with you the process I usually use that I learned from reading many other blogs, forums, and tutorials around the web.
For the context of this particular example, I happened to use After Effects to achieve the final result, but you can use any editing/compositing software that allows you to change the transfer mode (pretty much all of them).
Here’s a screenshot taken earlier as a reference point:
Please click on the screenshot below to enlarge it
Step 1
Place your footage into the timeline.
Step 2
Duplicate the lens, stack it on top of the first layer, and change the transfer mode to Overlay.
Step 3
Decrease the saturation of the duplicate layer. You’ll notice that it still leaves some color in the image because there is saturation bleeding in the original footage layer.
Step 4
Invert the duplicated layer and add a Gaussian Blur to it.
Step 5
Duplicate the original footage again and stack it on top of the other two layers. Then change the transmission mode to “Linear Light”. Lower the opacity of this layer to your liking. At this point, pay more attention to the texture of the image, as you’ll be adjusting the colors in the next step.
Step 6
Make any other final color adjustments. In this scene, I further reduced the saturation and lowered the highlights. Again, this will vary from lens to lens.
before/after
I want to quickly point out that while I’m using this shot as an example, this is usually a scene where an HDR look is not a good idea… this movie is about a model, so intentionally showing skin detail just doesn’t do anything for me. Ever known to film this type of content! But to illustrate the point, we’ll show what can be achieved with some simple post-processing.
For the reasons stated above, I chose to make the effect obvious rather than push it to extremes. Personally, this is how I like to use this technique, as it keeps the final image from feeling too stylized, even though you can still feel the HDR effect. No, it’s not as obvious as it is in camera, but it looks a lot more organic than pushing it further and then giving it that artificial HDR look.
At first glance, you might think that you could just add some contrast and reduce saturation to get this effect, but the end result won’t be the same – especially (in this case) regarding skin tones. For better or worse, the textures and details it delivers are characteristic of the technology and ultimately simulate an HDR look.
For more information on color grading, be sure to check out my recent article Natural looking color grading.
