Extending Dynamic Range – Seminar – Contrast Ratios





Today I present a seminar Extending Dynamic Range. Extending dynamic range is one of the fundamental challenges of photography since it’s invention. All forms of visual representation map the appearance of a high dynamic range scene into a low dynamic range medium (typically print). There have been many approaches to solving this problem throughout history. Now, with new technology, there are new approaches. HDR merges are popular now. In time, all of our imagery will be able to incorporate increasingly high dynamic range information.
Here’s a comparison of contrast ratios from very high dynamic range self-luminiscent objects to low dynamic range prints.
sun to starlight                                 1,000,000,000,000:1
human vision w/ dark adaptation      100,000,000:1
Spherocam HDR camera                    50,000,000:1
Brightside monitor                            200,000:1
human vision – single  view               10,000:1
b/w negative film                              10,000:1
typical DSLR                                      500:1
LCD monitor                                      400:1
CRT monitor                                      200:1
paper – best possible                        100:1
paper – typical                                   50:1
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