HDR Tip 6 – Don’t HDR People

Trey’s Note: this is part of a week-long HDR Tip session with Rick Sammon.  If you want to find out more, feel free to see the free HDR Tutorial or the more in-depth HDR Tutorial on Video.

Resist the temptation to carry HDR techniques over to people. They just never look good. This is a big reason HDR Video will never take off until there are algorithms to find people’s faces and skin tones to remove the HDR processing.

There is something about the human mind that does drink in the rich texture and colors of objects, clothes, skies, trees, etc — but that does not carry over to faces. Our anthropological wiring enables us to apply a different standard to faces… and this is one of many reasons not to HDR people!

The best way to ensure people don’t have HDR effects is to create two layers — the HDR layer and the original RAW layer. Create a masking layer and slowly mix in the appropriate skin tones.