11/10/2023
The iconic Japanese maple in autumn. “The Tree,” as it has been designated by Portland Japanese Garden, is often called the most photographed tree in the world. Which is mostly believable, if unmeasurable, as this maple really draws a crowd in the fall when colors peak. There are line stanchions, signage for queuing up, 15 minute time limits, and often really long waits for the best views. On my first attempt it was well over an hour, way longer than I was prepared to stay. On a second visit there was virtually no line at all. Timing, is everything…
The Tree was also a great subject to test out Lightroom’s new HDR (high dynamic range) editing features in the latest v13 release. Sadly, you can’t see the results in this photo.
Current support for HDR photographs seems to be an afterthought. It is an underutilized technology even at time when many new phone, tablet and laptop screens are fully capable of displaying HDR content. It’s also often mislabeled as tone-mapping to fit an SDR (standard dynamic range) environment, but true HDR is something much different. Which is why I’m excited to see Adobe now incorporating this workflow in to Lightroom for still photography. There is an incredible amount of tonal data in digital photographs that most people simply never actually see.
The biggest current challenge may be sharing images so that others can experience the immersive effect of HDR photographs. While major players like Adobe, Apple, Google and others have participated in setting some standards for how to display HDR across all screens and within most web browsers, there are real limitations because major online platforms still don’t support HDR or stripe away the metadata necessary to make it work. None of the major social media outlets support HDR photographs (HDR video of course does have some support), and even many photo-centric web design platforms aren’t there yet either. You can have the perfectly captured digital image from the best camera, expertly developed, but if it’s going to be shared on Instagram and the rest, all that is moot.
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