High Dynamic Range Processing

Abstract

Deep sky astronomical Images are produced by capturing and building up very faint signals over an extended period of time. Although faint, some objects produce a wide range of signal intensity between the very brightest and the dimmest parts of an image. For instance; capturing bright detail of the surface of the Sun and displaying it alongside the exceedingly fainter prominences on the edge of the solar disk demands expert management of the very high dynamic range of brightness values. Currently, modern digital cameras can manage broad dynamic range in terrestrial scenes by taking several images at different exposure settings and then combining these exposures to make a coherent image. High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging and processing are now the catch terms that refer to imaging and processing techniques that effectively manage high dynamic range data to produce images with high visual and informational impact.