Jeff Stevensen: HDR – The Web’s Loudness War?

After reading this article I don’t feel so bad about not jumping into HDR with two feet.  Personally, I’m more interested in developing my photography than playing with all the bells and whistles. Composition. Lighting. Post-processing. These are where I want to develop my skills.  I realize that HDR is a type of post-processing, but it’s not one I’m particularly interested in at this time. This isn’t to say that in the future I may push myself to get a handle on HDR, but now? Not so much.

As this author points out, HDR should just be another tool in one’s photographic toolbox, not an end in itself.

The web today is engaged in a visual “loudness war.” You’ve the barest fraction of a second to catch a page surfer’s interest and keep him from clicking away. More contrast! Pump up the color! Grunge it! Make the detail pop! Hold that viewer a fraction of a second longer.

I don’t think a processing technique should call attention to itself as the end product of a photograph, and that’s what most HDR or other effects-driven photos are about. Neither HDR nor any other filter can make an inherently boring picture into an interesting one. It can, however, make an inherently boring photograph into one marginally intriguing for a half-second or so — until, like my art director friend, you’ve simply had enough. Then you tune it out with the other hype.