... Still, a relevant analogy is the use of HDR to increase the dynamic range of current sensors.
Not picking on you John, but Isn't HDR a misnomer? I mean what we are really doing is "reducing" the dynamic range to display on our monitors... in reality it is Dynamic range compression, is it not?
Its a misnomer in the context and manner its normally used, yes. In the context of a 32-bit (or greater) float per color channel pixel HDR image (where the potential value range for each color channel in a pixel is on the order of 0.000000001 to 100,000,000,000), then and only then is the term actually valid. The moment you downconvert a source HDR image into a 16-bit/8-bit integer per color channel pixel image, you are once again limiting your DR. I've always had the same beef with "HDR"...
