Great post from +Scott Kelby This post is exactly how I feel about HDR.
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What They’re Not Telling You About HDR Images | Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider
StarFerryHDRsm. I remember showing someone one of my black and white prints a few years ago—and I could tell there was something they really didn't like about it. They stared at it for a minute or so,…
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great read. I wish I was better at HDR, but need to work on fundamentals first.
I'm no pro, but this whole "it's HDR" or it's "not HDR" thing kinda bugs me. Isn't the process of manipulating an image, whether it's color range, contrast, crop, etc., all a matter of scale? How does one decide they "don't like HDR"? Isn't that really saying, "I don't like anything other than exactly what the DSLR's arbitrary algorithm used to capture the image?" At what point, exactly, does opening up Photoshop and manipulating an image become "HDR"?
+Arthur Wait It becomes true HDR when you take multiple shots of the same image, vary the exposures, and re-combine them into a single picture of dynamic range. There are several programs and apps for making HDR effects from a single picture, but that's cheating at what some might already call a cheat anyways.
+Arthur Wait and +Daniel Burke I think what +Scott Kelby meant here is that grunge look of extreme manipulations in HDR, where the halos pop and the image looks unnatural. In fact, the example of Scott looks pretty convincing to me and very pleasant. The Grunge effect has its place, it looks nice on walls with graffiti, for instance, but some people are using it everywhere, just to show off and its kind of annoying.
Is a bit of fashion, it will go eventually and people will stop liking this.
What I think is there to stay is that people wont tolerate bad lit subjects anymore, half of the image in the shadows, etc…
For that you need to know your drill, take 3 or 5 exposures and do a convincing HDR, one that compensates for the dynamic range and make it look nice, and natural.
Its actually liberating, you get somewhere, the sky is white washed, and you can still get wonderful images.
But its certainly hard work which comes with the job.