The human eye is very sensitive to slight visual details. It can see many subtleties and detect dim light through to fairly high intensities. Modern technology, with all its developments, cannot easily capture as much as our eyes can. High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR) goes a long way to bridging this gap.
Our earliest attempts at photography taught us that pictures taken in dim light often don’t produce good images. Our eyes adapt easily to the light, while the camera has to be manually adjusted. Often this can be solved with some technique and experience. But matters become more complex when a scene contains both bright and dim elements. Our eyes can handle this well, but our camera can only handle one extreme or the other; either the dim light or the bright light in the photograph looks right, but not both. This is where HDR come in.
High Dynamic Range systems capture images of the same scene taken at different exposures; three shots is standard. These shots are them combined to form a final images, with the light and dark details all intact.
HDR principle have been used in conventional film, but the process was difficult and the subject could not move between shots less the image be ruined. Some modern digital cameras have started to include a function that automatically takes HDR component shots. The rapid succession of these shots noticeable reduces problems with the subject movement.
The average wedding photo might not benefit too much from the HDR process, but the framed print, or any studio photos might. If we have time to compose a good scene we can usually get superior results from HDR photos. Then again, HDR might well become standard when employing a professional photographer.