It's probably HDR.
I sometimes wonder how marketing types live with themselves. Their whole purpose in life is to convince us to buy things for which we have no need, and often lack the money. As George Foshee said, "We spend money we don't have, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like." But I digress. I was talking about marketers. In addition to trying to convince us to buy things, sometimes they even take techniques, rename them, and then claim they invented them, as is the case in a press release I found today.
First, a little background. HDR (or High Dynamic Range) Photography is a method whereby you take several shots of scene at several different exposures, and then combine those shots into one. This generates a final image that captures much more of the range visible to the human eye. As usual, see
Wikipedia for more.
So, today I came across a press release from a real estate web site. Under the pretentious headline "Arizona Firm Revolutionizes Real Estate Photography With New ELC Technology," they claim to have invented a technique called "Enhanced Lighting Compression" which promises to "[bring] new level[s] of detail & appeal to property photos." Hmm...sounds interesting. Let's read more.
This is how they describe the process:
ELC photography involves taking multiple simultaneous exposures with a specially configured digital camera. These images are processed at VMLH's studio, where they are integrated and enhanced with custom software that merges a series of images into one ELC photograph that can be printed, emailed or used on web pages as a standard JPEG photo file.
Sounds exactly like HDR, except for the "multiple simultaneous exposures" part, which is either complete hyperbole, or they have a special multi-CCD camera. Considering it is a marketing piece, I would assume the former, but if it is the latter, then it's still HDR photography, they just had someone make them a VERY expensive digital camera. And on their web site, they simply claim that "custom software" is "custom Photoshop settings."
And I could stop there, since it's pretty clear they they have simply renamed an existing technique and are trying to market it under a new name. But, there is other marketing-speak in the article that is just begging to be called out.
The new Enhanced Lighting Compression (ELC) system produces pictures that bring out far more of the details seen by the human eye, creating stunning images that have a hyper-real level of presence, clarity and immediacy.
"Stunning images?" Well, maybe, in that it's more range than you are used to seeing in a photograph. But no more stunning than a well-taken and well-lit shot of a house.
Brings out more detail? Yes, HDR photography does that. But "Hyper-real!?" Oh, sigh. The only references to hyper-reality I could find on Wikipedia (I know, not always authoritative) were Hyperreality, a term used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy; Hyperrealism, a school of painting; Hyperreal numbers, an extension of the real numbers in mathematics that are used in non-standard analysis; and a song. So unless they are talking about philosophy, math, or a realistic painting technique, their choice of words was completely meaningless. The images aren't hyper-real, they simply, as I stated, look like a well lit shot should.
"I tell people that ELC photos adds $100,000 to the value of their home," said Arizona realtor Kim Stoegbauer.
Right, about that "how do marketers live with themselves" question? Enough said.
If you take a look at the images at http://www.vmlh.com/elc/ (no I'm not linking to them, I have no desire to raise their Google rank), you'll see the sample photos don't look all that amazing. They simply look like a picture taken by a photographer who knew what they were doing.
For some examples of real HDR photography, and what it can do, take a look at
HDR photos on Flickr. For an excellent example that shows how HDR can generate a picture showing detail in the bright areas, all the way down to the dark areas, see
this image.
HDR photography is neat, and if they want to use it real estate, great! Actually, really great; have you
seen some of the photos attached to houses for sale? Some of them are horrible. So, if they want to use HDR, that's fine, but at least call it what it is, instead of creating a new name, and claiming you invented it.
Oh, if you're interested in the press release, copy and paste this link: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-25-2008/0004779580&EDATE=
