Monochromatic HDR Photography: Shooting and Processing Black & White High Dynamic Range Photos

Images and details from Monochromatic HDR Photography, by Harold Davis

A Letter to Amazon.com Readers from Harold Davis

Dear Amazon.com Reader:

I am writing this letter to tell you about my book, Monochromatic HDR Photography. If you are thinking about purchasing my book, it might help you to know how I came to create it, and what you ll find in it.

The first thing you should know about Monochromatic HDR Photography is that it is a book about digital black and white photography. From the very beginning of photography, practitioners have attempted to extend the dynamic range of their imagery. With digital photography, it has become easily possible to extend the range of lights and darks captured using techniques that fall under the rubric of HDR, which is short for High Dynamic Range.

While HDR techniques can enhance many color photos, overuse of HDR can result in garish imagery. But color isn t everything! The HDR techniques of extending lights and darks in an image can also be applied to black and white photography. This avoids any problems with typical over-processing of color images in HDR, and is a really great technique for creating compelling black and white photographs. Monochromatic HDR Photography stands at the intersection of two hot trends in digital photography: black and white, and HDR.

My book presents flowcharts and a detailed workflow for shooting and processing black and white HDR imagery. A complete step-by-step case study is shown using an image of the ceiling of a cathedral. This is a fine example of what you can do with monochromatic HDR: Inside the cathedral, with bright sunlight shining through stained glass windows, and dark corners masked in shadow, the scene in front of the camera contains huge variations in the dynamic range from the lightest whites to the darkest blacks.

In Monochromatic HDR Photography, the key topics you will learn in the context of creative image-making include:

1. What subjects work in black & white
2. Shooting sequences in the field to extend dynamic range
3. Working with multi-RAW processing
4. Using hand-HDR techniques
5. Using LAB for color and dynamic range enhancement
6. Using HDR software to create monochromatic imagery
7. Tools, techniques and best practices for monochromatic conversions
8. Printing monochromatic HDR images

This is a unique and beautiful book that provides a practical workflow for photographers seriously interested in extending the tonal range of their digital black and white photographs. I truly hope you will enjoy Monochromatic HDR Photography as much as I ve enjoyed creating the photos in it, and detailing how I made them.

Best wishes in photography,