The concept of high dynamic range photography or “HDR” has been around for a long time. It became a real option with the advent of digital photo editing. That process was manual and time consuming but resulting in very good images. It’s only been very recent that the software and algorithms have become good enough to automate the task and make it a “one button” feature in cameras.

Then, the iPhone gave HDR to the masses.

For a “phone”, the automated software is pretty good but Photoshop or GIMP digital editing still produce vastly superior results.

As they say “the best camera is the one you have with you”. Similarly, the best photo software is the one you actually use. So, combining the two is definitely good for the consumer.

Oh, yeah … just because you have HDR does not make you a better photographer. It’s just another tool in the bag. If you don’t pay attention to the fundamentals of color, lighting, exposure, and composition, then tricks like HDR are just “lipstick on a pig”!

…and for those not familiar with the “WEO” reference in the title, it’s from A&P (The Great Atlantic & Pacific Trading Company) for a new concept – the big box warehouse food outlet store … “A&P opens a warehouse store, in May 1971, and calls it WEO (Warehouse Economy Outlet). This low-price warehouse concept was rolled out to 1500 stores featuring displays of fast-selling grocery items in the original cases.” They launched an ad campaign where a grocery store assistant would ask shoppers about the prices and when they said “good” or “really good” the assistant would say “close but not WEO”. And the tag line to the ad was “we won’t stop until you say WEO”.