Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the span between the darkest and brightest parts of a scene that a camera can record with usable detail in a single shot.
On this page 4 sections
Dynamic range is the span between the darkest and brightest parts of a scene that a camera can record with usable detail in a single shot.
How it works
A sensor collects light in tiny pixels. Too little light leaves shadows noisy and muddy. Too much light fills a pixel completely, so bright areas turn pure white and lose detail. Dynamic range describes the gap between those two limits. A scene with a bright sky and a shaded face has a wide range, and a sensor with a narrow range must give up detail at one end.
What the numbers mean
- It is usually measured in stops. Each extra stop means the camera can handle twice as much difference in brightness.
- Larger pixels and larger sensors generally hold more range than smaller ones.
- Raw files keep more tonal steps than compressed JPEG files, so they hold more of the range.
Related processing
Many cameras and phones merge several frames, often called HDR, to stretch the range in software. This recovers detail, but it is not the same as the sensor itself recording more.
What it does not promise
A wide dynamic range does not make colours more vivid or pictures sharper. Stop figures from different makers are often measured by different methods, so they cannot always be compared directly.