50 Incredible Examples of HDR Photography

by Bill Jones

HDR Photography, you either love it or hate it. I have read comments reflecting both sentiments and honestly I can understand both sides. A lot of HDR photography I have found really seems blown-out and way way to saturated and for the most part just plain ugly. This flavor of HDR photos I can do without. Then there is the well executed HDR image. Here we find beautiful dreamlike colors and tones, almost a magical quality to it.

Below I have examples of just that type of HDR photo. Enjoy.

David Kendal

HDR Photography

Kaj Bjurman

HDR Photography

Kris Kros

HDR Photography

Erroba

HDR Photography

vedd

HDR Photography

Xindaan

HDR Photography

Peter Unterweger

HDR Photography

MorBCN

HDR Photography

Omar Junior

HDR Photography

Tony Eckersley

HDR Photography

Philipp Klinger

HDR Photography

Kane Gledhil

HDR Photography

Joep Roosen

HDR Photography

Ragstatic

HDR Photography

Khaled A.K

HDR Photography

Brian Matiash

HDR Photography

tappit_01

HDR Photography

petervanallen

HDR Photography

Altus

HDR Photography

(Erik)

HDR Photography

Daniel Cheong

HDR Photography

John Mueller

HDR Photography

uncommon

HDR Photography

caese

HDR Photography

Salva del Saz

HDR Photography

Pablo Lèautaud

HDR Photography

CarbonSilver (gbenz)

HDR Photography

Surrealize

HDR Photography

rednaxela_west

HDR Photography

big pixel pusher

HDR Photography

Whats your opinion on HDR Photography?

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49 Comments

Kim Beaty said:

I love HDR – Beautiful images, enhanced, what’s wrong with that? I love the lights and darks, and the deep texture of the images.
Bill Jones said:

Agreed, however I have seen some pretty bad attempts at it.
@todayinart said:

I am so bad at this, but trying to get better. Nice shots!
Bill Jones said:

@todayinart
Keep trying. In the future I will have a tutorial explaining how to produce nice HDR images. There is hope!
@carmarthenshire said:

Always inspired, always learning more.

Some of my attempts:- http://www.fingerprintphotography.co.uk/wales/wales.htm

:o)
Kelly said:

Amazing pictures! Everything looks like so real and you feel like you can touch! *-*
Roger said:

Yea, It’s all about being subtle with it. Here’s a HDR tilt shift photo I did. Two gimmicks in one!

http://www.rogerblanton.com/downloads/tiltshiftpool.jpg
kevin said:

Wow, just awesome!
Martin said:

Boaahhh – absolut fantastic. Totally blown away. Thanks for sharing.
Martin
Dean Birinyi said:

Wonderful images.

Everyone of them is stunning and beautiful, however I also noticed that all but a very few have that HDR look, where things are just a little bit unreal, but maybe it’s just me and my inner aesthetic hasn’t quite adapted to the new capabilities the technique provides.

Regardless these images are all excellent.
Aaron said:

I am baffled at how you get hdr action shots. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Bill Jones said:

@ Aaron
Visit this flickr group. You will find your answers there. Basically you will have to work from one RAW image and create several bracketed exposures from it to produce your HDR image.
Rich Uchytil said:

Great photos, but you can’t do proper a HDR set without including Trey Ratcliff from http://www.StuckinCustoms.com. His stuff is fantastic!!
FOlmeda said:

These are really brilliant!!!!!! An inspiration! I’ve been taking some too as this in Inverness http://www.flickr.com/photos/kobayeshi/3855999361/ or this in Portmahomack http://www.flickr.com/photos/kobayeshi/3893137431/

Bye!
Lonnie said:

I really don’t like HDR. Too many people just over do it. Looks fake to me most of the time. If you are going to try it, don’t go over +/- 0.3 stop either way.
Tazran Tanmizi said:

to me some it looks like bad illustration. just looks too artificial, colors saturation are too high. I think some are just over done.
I think is good technique just got to do tastefully. judgment is as important as technique.
Good luck
Gautam said:

Where’s Trey Ratcliff (http://www.StuckinCustoms.com)?
Morkel Erasmus said:

stunning examples!! ’tis true, most either love or hate it. I am of the funny kind that loves the natural-looking ones as well as those that push the boundaries some.

I agree – you’ll have to include Trey Ratcliffe from Stuckincustoms.

have a look at my “Southern Africa in HDR” blog…
just click on my name…:)
The Baldchemist said:

You know, I like some of the pictures here and thank you. But, I’m not sure that they are “high dynamic range”. HDR requires several exposures. Some of these have movement that would not make for HDR.

It’s great that techniques are now availible to all (at a cost) but attempt to capture tha picture i the camera without relying on what “photoshop” can do.

Some pretty ordinary compositions here that have been worked for an unreal result.

Composition and use of light wins everytime.
Have a great new year.
Ricardo said:

I Hate HDR,It´s a fake photography
Craig said:

I don’t find many of these “incredible” at all. In fact many would be poor examples, HDR is about subtlety and in fact many are not HDR put ‘shopped HDR with single shots. “repainted” pictures if you will with an amazing amount of over sharpness.
I am a fan of HDR but much of what you have posted here is NOT HDR, at least let us start with getting it right and not calling super saturation, clarity blown out pictures HDR.
Michael Harris said:

For me hdr is a tool – a means to an end. It is a tool available to use in creating an image, it’s not the point of the image.
Jessica said:

I think you missed someone in this list of great HDR photos:

http://kenkaminesky.com/
Joe said:

NewHDR approach:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7604565@N06/
Top Wordpress Themesw said:

Wow these are simply amazing! I see some people do not “believe” in HDR photography, but ultimately it looks pretty good. I also would think that people that do HDR photography do not just do that.
Bruno Depi said:

Nice photos, but they are not the “classic HDR”, they are like the Dave Hill effect kinda of photos, manipulating to get a more dramatic light effect.HDR means that u can have more points of light putting 2 or more photos togheter, trying to reproduce the human eye sensibility, because the eye to light is more accurate than a camera.
But nice job anyways!
Kevin Chow said:

Very nice photos! It’s hard to believe some of those are real because they look CG. I never actually taken HDR photos before, but it’s interesting what it can do.

I recently did an episode of a podcast on photography. The photos used in it look amazing too. If interested, you may check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_yHkuA9DBw
Alex said:

When done properly HDR looks good but the above are overcooked they don’t like real photos more like paintings too saturated. do what we do go out and wait for the correct conditions to take great photos, enjoy the outdoors instead of rushing home stuck in from of your PC processing your photos.
Dan said:

HDR can make photos look stunning if done right and I love the effects it can have on people after one look at an image. I for one am trying to get better at it and look forward to the HDR tutorial!
GAZE said:

A good HDR is when the picture doesn’t look like HDR…

Let me throw up :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgm8383/sets/72157601439694274/
Art of Concept said:

I agree that some are over done, I rarely enjoy HDR but there are some nice examples here.
gene lowinger said:

I like the idea of HDR, but most users don’t know when to stop. I agree with GAZE (above). I’ve posted non-HDR images on my blog at genelowinger.blogspot.com and my FLICKR page, and gotten feedback about what great HDR shots they are, and also posted HDR shots that have been unrecognized as HDR. That’s the key. These are for the most part very fine examples of HDR. A few, with a touch of halo effects, are a little too much. How did you find these varied examples?
Dipti Hulawane said:

I like these! I don’t know why people dislike it. But, individual perspective respected! I simply love these! I’m going to try my hand at it!
jmleclercq said:

Great collection…Thanks for sharing
Sheila said:

What baffles me are all the comments I see here criticizing the above examples. HDR photos (or compositions) are art. Art is subjective. What one likes, another may hate. That’s fine, but it shouldn’t be criticized. Like it or don’t, but don’t put it down. I happen to like HDR as art and am practicing this art myself. I want to hang some on my wall. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to create HDR photos/art. We each have our own unique style and preferences. Peace!
Kyle Bailey said:

These are great examples. Very artistic and engaging. HDR is great as it can span from highly realistic to fully artistic and anything in between.

Great selection – For anyone interested you can view some of my HDR photographs on Flickr – http://bit.ly/HDRShots
Valentina said:

Oh my God, I love these photos! I love these deep colours!
David Zimagery said:

There’s a place for all levels of photographic processing. From the untouched documentation of a scene. to the processed image that shares the artistic vision of the photographer/artist. While I haven’t figured out how to do HDR to my liking, or just don’t have the right software, I still appreciate well taken, well presented photos whether edited or not.
Afrizal Hasbi said:

I think all photos are very interest give idea for us tho make good photos.
Alexis Morgan said:

These photos are AMAZING!
Russ Fisher said:

Very thoughtful selection…really inspiring! I think it’s time people moved on from the ‘love it or hate it’ position re. HDR and just accept it’s part of the overall photographic repertoire that has undoubtedly opened up new creative possibilities…never a bad thing!
Luz E Rivera said:

good collection
Shadow Knight said:

hi i am just learning how to do this it looks sort of easy
Hannah Woodard said:

So here’s my thought on HDR. I liked a few of these shots in here, but I agree, some still look overdone.
I don’t think HDR is something to dismiss en masse; I mean, when color film first came out, people thought it was tacky as all get out and couldn’t be fine art. And I think HDR is similar, it’s a new process that people are somewhat suspicious of, but has lots of potential. But – it should be used as a tool to enhance your photography, not simply as a gimmick. I think a photo that screams “HDR!!!!” is a failure. A photo that uses HDR is different than a photo that is nothing but HDR.
And remember – less is almost always more.
Hannah Woodard said:

Also – I would just like to throw this out there – I think people look awful and plasticy in HDR. please, no more HDR portraits. :shudder:
Nino Xerri said:

I like HDR and the concept of being able to get all the different textures/exposures of a scene into one image.
Mashdown said:

People get HDR mixed up with tone mapping way too often. It seems you can tone map (or clarify if you use Corel) a photo and call it HDR but not use te correct method for the right reason.
IMO to use HDR is the purpose of getting the correct light in every part of a shot.
I saw HDR and loved it, wanted to do it so learnt how. Then realised I was doing it for no reason as I love contrast and ended up darkening areas anyway.
The first time I used it properly was under a tree, to capture the thick branches without the sky being way blown out. The shot looks awesome IMO and is one of my favourites, but was also the turning point for me where I stopped tonemaping for those fake looking shots and started using it for its intended purpose.
Sascha Grosser said:

Very nice HDR’s.
Look at my HDR-Editions in b/w….

Greetings.

Sascha Grosser
OnlyMeq said:

I thought these were supposed to be photos, not a bunch of cheap looking cartoons. If I wanted to see overdone photoshop I would just go pick up a fashion magazine