High Dynamic Range photography, or “HDR” as it’s known by those familiar with the technique is basically the process of merging various exposures of a subject into a single “merged” image.

This merged image typically contains image detail in the extreme highlights, mid-tones, and shadow areas. With a light touch, the technique gives photographers the ability to capture scenes that would be impossible to capture with a single exposure. For example, balancing scenes consisting of varying daylight and incandescent light sources. The technique essentially gives photographers the ability to represent in an image the dynamic range that we’re able to capture with our eyes.  But with great power…

With a heavy touch — the technique can be used to create some amazingly surrealistic (or unrealistic) scenes, scenes that would be impossible in nature. It’s those “heavy touch” images that have been the source of much controversy, and even more criticism. Many photographers allege that the effect is heavy-handed, over-used, and “played out”. Others say, it’s merely another technique at the artists disposal.

One of the photographers at the center of the HDR debate is Trey Ratcliff, he’s the author of the new book A World in HDR and he also runs Stuck in Customs, one of the most popular Travel Photography blogs on the Internet. Trey has a unique way of executing his interpretation of HDR, and has exhaustively documented it as a very popular HDR tutorial which he makes available on his blog. He attributes some of his unique perspective on the world (and light) to the fact that he was born sightless in one eye, and with a background in computer science and math, he also brings an algorithm-like process to capturing his images.

In this interview, Trey and I discuss the HDR controversy, and his perspective on why there has been so much debate.

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