San Francisco-based video production company Soviet Montage is making HDR video. By using a beam splitter and two Canon 5D MkII SLRs, the same scene can be filmed with two different exposures.

Many people claim to hate HDR photographs, but what they really object to is tone mapping. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is nothing more than the capture of more exposure information. The iPhone now does this, and it consists of taking several photographs of the same subject, identical but for the exposures, allowing detail to be captured in both highlights and shadows far beyond the range of any sensor or piece of film. These exposures are then combined:

This is where things usually start to go wrong. If the information in the image is used for good, then you see only the extra detail, replacing a washed out sky with a deep-blue one, for example. If it is used for evil, the it is tone-mapped into a candy-colored, Wizard of Oz nightmare that would have even Michael Jackson moonwalking in his grave.

Soviet Montage got around the complexities of capturing the exact same image with different cameras by using a technique older than color photography itself. The light is split into two beams and each recorded by a separate camera. This is how Technicolor works: the incoming light is sent off to three strips of film, all running simultaneously. Each beam is sent through a red, green or blue filter before hitting the back-and-white film. When printed, the resulting strips are dyed with the correct color and then the film strips are combined. Neat, right?

The Soviet Montage folks used computers for their trickery, of course, and the effects are rather enthralling. The oddest is the HDR footage of a human, which ends up looking a lot like the movie 300. The company is currently shooting an unspecified project with their new technique, and says that one of the biggest advantages is that lighting is much less of an issue. If you ever saw a movie or TV show being shot in the street, you'll be familiar with the crazy lighting rigs that are even used by day. Video HDR could put an end to that.

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s [Soviet Montage vi Photography Bay]

See Also:

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.