HDR Food Photography: Giving Your Insta-Pics That Surreal Oomph They're Missing

What Is High Dynamic Range?

A better way to define dynamic range than how I did above would be the variation between the lightest element in an image and the darkest. You would think it would as simple as going from black to white. In actuality, photos taken in what most photographers would call good lighting, such as during golden hour, or in properly adjusted studio lighting, have a limited range. There are few if any aspects of the image completely black and underexposed (crushed shadows) or completely white and overexposed (washed out). The range of darker to whiter tones is quite limited in a single photograph.

In photography, the unit used to measure exposure (the light per unit area on the camera sensor) is measured in Exposure Value (EV), more commonly known as a stop. You've probably seen it on your camera's settings if you own one. It is a relative value that combines the f-stop (no, not stop from before) or aperture size, and the shutter speed of the camera into a value. Changes in either, adjusts the other accordingly, in order to maintain that specific EV.

Overall, human eyes can see 35 stops of lights in their vision. Photographs taken by DSLR cameras manage to capture less than 15 stops, while point-and-shoot cameras capture even less, and smartphones almost half that. Knowing this, it isn't surprising when you sometimes take a photo and it isn't exactly what your eyes had visualized in your head. It's probably because your eyes are literally seeing more than the camera or phone can physically capture. 

This is where HDR photography comes in. The technique involves taking multiple photographs (bracketing) with exactly the same composition but with different stops and different ranges of light, and then combining them together. Usually there is a minimum of 3 images; one normal, one underexposed, and one overexposed. With underexposed images, dark elements are well-lit, while overexposed images have well-lit bright elements. Tone-mapping the images takes the well-lit elements and puts them all in the same image, giving you a photo you can't naturally get beyond your own vision.

Bracketing

Since smartphones are the most common types of cameras we use, the fact that it has taken a while for manual control in IPhones and Android devices is a surprise, but with IOS 8 and Android Nougat, it's now available. In case you don't have these latest versions, you can use free apps such as Adobe Lightroom or Google Snapseed to take RAW (the most unprocessed version of an image you can get. It tends to be larger than your average image file type) or JPEG (the most common image file type. The one your phone usually produces) in case you can't, and transfer them to your computer.

You could also just use the built-in HDR filters equipped in most smartphones, but it would not produce the same beautiful result images like those you saw earlier.

An essential aspect of creating HDR images is having well aligned images with as little movement possible. Instances of shifting objects create ghosts, logically named for the translucent "ghost" which is created when the images are layered.

The more stability, the better. Ideally, you should get a tripod for your camera or your phone, but if you're on a budget, as many of us tend to be, or prefer something more concise, my personal favourite is a Friction arm. You can also use your selfie-stick clamp on it for your phone too. If you're not in the mood to spend a dime, you can try standing still or do some jerry-rigging at your own risk. 

Whether you have a smartphone or camera, here are 5 simple steps to bracketing: 

1. Take the image.

2. Change the EV value to the first positive increment and take the same image again.

3. Do 2. Twice overall.

4. Do 2. Twice again, except in negative increments from the original EV value of 0.

5. Transfer the images to your computer.

Editing

Now this is where the beauty of software comes into play.

Good HDR software is usually paid. Thankfully the DxO Nix Collection, originally made by Google, is completely free. The Nix Collection is a number of editing softwares that makes a beginner photographer's job easier.

Within it is HDR Efex Pro, the software we'll be using. Once it is installed and you've opened it up, you'll get a page like the one shown below. 

Click on File at the top right and go to Open Images. Select the appropriate images and import them.

Let's look at the photos shown right above and explore some basic editing settings.

Exposure adjusts the overall brightness. You don't want to change this unless your base image was taken in low light conditions.

Shadows adjusts the brightness of the darker elements. Usually you would increase this somewhat to maintain the HDR feeling. Highlights adjusts the brightness of lighter elements. You tend to decrease this to make reduce the extreme contrast, and bring out the colour of otherwise overly bright elements.

Whites and Blacks respectively change the presence of these two tones. Usually you would reduce the white tones and darken the black tones to counteract some of the negative impacts of adjusting the shadows and highlights.

Shadows adjusts the brightness of the darker elements, usually you increase this somewhat to maintain the HDR feeling.

Another editing feature is vignette, which gives a subtle black or white blurry border. It can be used to add to the atmosphere you intend to create or (especially with food) can help emphasize a focal point in the image. I suggest playing around with the neutral density and levels if you think it's appropriate, since you may already be finished editing your photograph.

Keep in mind that the editing steps above are to just get you started. This may not be how you want to edit it. You may have an entirely different approach to it, a different look you want. And thats completely fine and I encourage you to explore.