20 Beautiful HDR Pictures

Venice Italy

simply mind blowing!!!!

thanx man

http://www.sicakblog.com
http://www.atesliblog.com

awsome pictures whoow!

These are great! thanks for sharing. I'll have to learn more about this.

This is a great collection of photos.Thank you for sharing

Wow. that audi is really impressive... I would love to have that car.

"enhanced images" ... you mean not really what it looks like, more like photoshop, not the real thing --- Dont get me wrong im sure you have to be good a adding effects, but dont tell me it is a even better picture. For art pretty cool, for photography they kinda suck

I find this site: www.hdrcreme.com
HDRcreme is the first HDR photo gallery that let you share photos, explore and learn about High dynamic range imaging. HDRcreme is a free image hosting service.

Great selection, I like it!

How are they able to capture movement in an HDR photograph? specifically the one with the planes, the beach, the cattle, and the smoke?

i've been expirementing alot, but i'm unable to successful capture any motion.

any help would be awesome

Wow. Some of those are pretty fun! Nice concept. Amazing work!

These are just awesome! (like drupal!)

forgot one

There is an art to using HDR without going overboard. I think a lot of people do over do it. When it comes to portaits, HDR, shouldn't be used. It makes people and animals look more like aliens then earthly creatures. Here are some realistic HDRs, which are what I prefer.

Nice pictures you got here. This pieces motivate me more to continue learning.

Thanks!

Great work. Some of the images can really be used for wall poster.

Great pics and thanks for sharing. As for that coffee, I wonder if you've got a tastee for Kenyan coffee?

I love them!

Those who say these pictures don't look real... Could you please let me know why do all pictures have to look real????

I have to say that there are a lot of techniques to make better image and HDR can be one of these but all of these example are horrible over done. They are dramatic but really are not that interesting once you get over the extreme contrast.

If you are going to highlight HDR images, you might want to try to find ones that are well done as opposed to these that are done using default settings and create really false looking images.

It's just like wearing too much make up - it does not look natural and it does not look attractive.

amazing work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How old is the fire truck at the very top of the set???? Ity looks kinda 80's feel on it.

_________________________

Audi 100 Parts | Audi 100 Catalytic Converter

Pah! Most of them are taken from the smashing magazine post - and what a surprise, just 3 days after they posted it.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/10/35-fantastic-hdr-pictures/

They don't look real - they look like videogame graphics.
I like them, it's just that... they look all fake, and not real. Except for that photo someone posted in the comments - that one looked real.

Tonemapping for live!

Before & After magazine has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990. It's a nice car!

____________________

My Ford Parts

terrible masking (to say the least)... a huge pet peeve. ____________________

My Toyota Parts

You don't necessarily need an expensive digicam to be able to pull off nice HDR pictures. The key thing is being able to take a picture in several exposure settings so a tripod would be the most beneficial tool. So take a picture, properly exposed, then take a couple that is on the underexposed side and a couple on the over exposed side and then HDR them together. Also, it helps a lot if you camera can shoot RAW, as sometimes you can HDR from 1 RAW photo pretty well. All you have to do is 'develop' your RAW images in different exposures and then use the results as your HDR source images. It's great fun. Also, great pictures - keep up the great work! Yep! he's right! _____________________ My Truck Accessories

You don't necessarily need an expensive digicam to be able to pull off nice HDR pictures. The key thing is being able to take a picture in several exposure settings so a tripod would be the most beneficial tool. So take a picture, properly exposed, then take a couple that is on the underexposed side and a couple on the over exposed side and then HDR them together. Also, it helps a lot if you camera can shoot RAW, as sometimes you can HDR from 1 RAW photo pretty well. All you have to do is 'develop' your RAW images in different exposures and then use the results as your HDR source images. It's great fun. Also, great pictures - keep up the great work! Yep! he's right! _____________________ My Truck Accessories

You don't necessarily need an expensive digicam to be able to pull off nice HDR pictures. The key thing is being able to take a picture in several exposure settings so a tripod would be the most beneficial tool. So take a picture, properly exposed, then take a couple that is on the underexposed side and a couple on the over exposed side and then HDR them together.

Also, it helps a lot if you camera can shoot RAW, as sometimes you can HDR from 1 RAW photo pretty well. All you have to do is 'develop' your RAW images in different exposures and then use the results as your HDR source images. It's great fun.

Also, great pictures - keep up the great work!

you got a cup of colombian coffe, would you send me some tutorials or anything like that? I'm a begginer and wanna practice :)

Really nice picture of the firetruck. Sort of reminds me of Dodge Trucks specifically my Dodge Ram. Keep it up!

Great work - some of your stuff is especially good. What are you using? I am using Photomatix. I am a bit of a beginner, but really enjoying HDR. Here are some of my efforts (most, but not all, not all are HDR): http://www.flickr.com/photos/eldubyer/. Please feel free to comment on my stuff, as we can all benefit from tips and advice. For the meantime, keep up your great work - it's an inspiration!!

very beautiful pictures. thanks. ;)

good photos...

Absolutely Beautiful, it's like opening your eyes for the first time, so much clarity and contrast. Great pics, cool concept.

What I find amusing is the fact that so many of you are disrespecting others artistic expression. We should embrace different techniques and styles, even if they look "fake". As a highly trained photographer, who shot for YEARS with nothing automatic (my first camera was an Original Nikon FM circa 1977, purchased in 2000), I had to learn the art of photography. Now with the advent of Digital I think branching out and experimenting is definitely an advantage and great fun. There are so many styles and techniques and perspectives to visual media. Perhaps we should see the beauty in an image rather than spout ignorant, tasteless comments because something isn't in the style we prefer.

Dude.. they're not bad at all.
"Most of these shots are so ugly. Might as well take your picture and throw em in a microwave.

* puke"
Or he can take your Picture and post it here, You alone tops all these in ugliness, Get a life.

Nice pics man, don't listen too people here who can't even spell their own name... They're all uptight because their parents don't love 'em

I think your photos are tremendous. I have doing photography for years but am new to HDR, any tips on shooting people this way?

HDR has gotten me back into photography again. I love it.
...and as Presell was saying... what is a nice camera to buy with a +/-2 auto bracketing

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/ProductDetail.page?pid=25235

..this is nice but I'm on a budget!

I think the pictures are very well done - you have definitely peaked my interest. I am new to photography and am amazed by all of the tools that can be utilized to increase the aesthetic value of the shots. The links and info provided by the folks who added comments that actually matter will be put to good use as well.

Please ignore the negative feedback from the self important "art critics" out there; it takes real brains to give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

Thank you for sharing your talent and allowing others to share theirs and their information!

I think most of you are off your rocker. These aren't fine art photography pieces. Most of these photos with HDR effects applied to them would best be suited for magazines. I agree some of them are ridiculous and have no or next to little balance (coliseum) , but some of them would work well.

Kitsch is the word that first comes to mind when viewing these images. It's one of the reasons that sites such as Flickr can be very tedious to go through. Ahhh Yuck!!!

This is absolutely HORRIBLE. The only good one is the last b/w the rest are kitsch crap. HDR can be good if when you look at it you cant tell its HDR. But most of these are absolutely horrible. This is not photography. Thats why its probably on a blog about DESIGN.

OH MY GOD

I just pucked in my mouth

How much does a good HDR program typically cost? Great pics, BTW!

For those of you interested in HDR. There's a free programme available for download called FDR Tools. You'll find it at: http://www.fdrtools.com/front_e.php

Oh so fake! The point of HDR is to make high dynamic range scenes look more REALISTIC...the way your eye sees the scene when you took the shot. Some of these shots look like they should be in a comic book.

So awesome!! I am going to list this post in Computer Link Magazine next issue!

Sweet. Most all of these look like a video game. Where can I purchase a Wii that will connect to my scooped out eye sockets?

eshehtrshrt

Here's a great tutorial of a fake HDR effect using Photoshop: http://www.nill.cz/index.php?set=tu1. They also offer an action including the same steps.

Fabio: Parabéns pelo excelente blog! Congrats for the awesome blog!

Hi Andrew

I found this handy: http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

Loving HDR, is there any tutorials on how to go about it? i'm fairly new to photography?

Simply beautiful. Thanks

Great Photos!
And one of mine.....

Oh yes - in response to the blogger, I use photomatix. I actually bought the thing, so much did I like it. The beta version of the new version is worth getting (esp if you're on vista).

It's nice for boosting single pics too - I've made the colours really pop out of previously dull pics before.

Also, having AEB on all the time is great (for landscape stuff) - as even if most of the pics will make crap HDRs, you have three exposures to work from, so are less likely to have a pic that fails because of poor exposure.

And... ahem... one of mine :)

I was never a fan of hdr images before,but these are just amazing. It's just too bad that some people abuse this technique,thinking it will make up for the lack of photography skills

cheers,
Dmitri

Apart of the different taste people show in HDR-photography it shows once again in the comments that people posting anonymously are to be considered real trolls. Not having the guts to provide a name or link to one's website speaks for itself. Guys and dolls: you're discrediting yourself! @abduzeedo: again a nice (polarizing) post - keep it up...

Nice top 20! The firetruck is definitely well done!

Incase anyone wants to view more HDR photos, I have plenty of them on my site.

Nice selection ;-)
Here's one of mine :

I am hooked on HDR. I know from experience that some images work better than others. It is all trial and error. I love the effect because it takes photography to another level of creativity. Maybe that is why some don't like it. It is all subjective in the end. I have quite a few HDR images posted on my blog. If you would like to look please follow this link http://slgphoto.aminus3.com

I think that maybe most ppl on here might just be jealous that they cannot produce such creative images...This is about artistic ability and creativity...There are many aspects and ideas about photography, I have learned to respect and appreciate them all.
I love these series of photos!!!

You get a large coffee from me!!!!!

I'm still debating whether to buy the HDR program or not. Probably not. My sample tries turned out looking like cartoons or illustrations. So I think you have to use HDR very sparingly unless you want that effect. I especially like the cow and the airplanes shot although to me they don't look like "real" photos. However, a lot of the photos here already have good composition and would stand alone as excellent even without HDR. Hats off to Greg who outlined how to get the effect in Photoshop. Thanks, Greg. I'll give that a try.

Most of these shots are so ugly. Might as well take your picture and throw em in a microwave.

* puke

After going through these images, I expected the vast majority to have ultra-high definition images linked somewhere on the page -- so far, only found a couple worthwhile ones which were higher than 1600x1200 resolution ... oh well ...

These are beautiful! Now, where's the time saving .torrent file to download the lot, so I can add them all to desktop background rotation ...

Nice photos. A couple are too much. But I quite like most of them.

Fix your links to porn off here.. for goodness sake, if you are going to blog and let people comment; at least clean out the crap and spam!

Wow great shot between them, not all. Some are a little bit to much for me...

They look horribly fake. More like illustrations than photos. That's fine for a specific effect, but for most photos you want natural colors. HDR is best when it's used subtly to enhance photos which would otherwise be impossible with one exposure: blown out windows, for instance. I've seen it used wonderfully in a few photos in a church where the stained glass was always blowing out. The final result looked natural and real. The photos above might look cool now, while the technique is new and fresh, but they're starting to look dated and unoriginal. Too much focus on the color saturation and not enough focus on actually taking good pictures.

The end result of a perfectly executed HDR image is that the viewer should not be aware that it has been manipulated.

It should look like a photograph that has a lot of detail in shadow and highlight area but not overdone to the point that it looks unreal.

You can certainly push it past reality at which point it becomes an illustration (and there's nothing wrong with that).

But those who use the technique well, use it in moderation.

One excellent use is in extending the range of interiors that have blown-out window highlights. The eye can see both the room details and the outside details but both cannot usually be captured together on an image unless one lights the interior. HDR can do this easily with a series of exposures from about minus 2 to plus 2 in one-stop increments.

Once the novelty of this technique wears off, we will begin to see a more realistic use of it. Until then, brace yourself for some bizarre images (not all bad, BTW).

An application (other than Photomatix) is FDRTools which we use on our DSLR Photography Workshop Cruise (http://www.dpcorner.com/cruise).

terrible masking (to say the least)... a huge pet peeve.

Funny when sissies make sissy comments about HDR images.

Sure there are bad images, but making them surreal is in the control of the artist.

What if he really intends to show it that way, artistically?

Not the best selection though, except maybe
for the WW2 like image, not the usual stuff you can find anywhere.

Yuck.

HDR: read HDR Capture, Compressed dynamic range results = ugly and unreal looking pictures.

IMO (obviously)

Here's another one they missed:

disappointing selection of images.

Here's one they missed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoes_photos/2152843748/in/set-72157603784...

One coffee for you from Ukraine ;)

I'm truly fascinated by HDR photography. But I have to admit that there are not much good examples around. Some of your findings I truly like, but most of them are to much of a trick. Almost like a photshop action. I'm working on some of my own. And I have to admit isn't easy.

Fantastic collection. Thank you!

amazing!!

These pictures do not look good. The color is totally oversaturated. It's not natural at all.

How is this supposed to be good? Try taking real pictures, it's much harder.

Dont like this at all.

MSG for Presell

The 350d can bracket at +/- 2 but I'd seriously consider a 400d now the 450d has been released. The 400d has much better features over the 350d for not much extra cost.

Paul

MSG for Presell

The 350d can bracket at +/- 2 but I'd seriously consider a 400d now the 450d has been released. The 400d has much better features over the 350d for not much extra cost.

Paul

MSG for Presell

The 350d can bracket at +/- 2 but I'd seriously consider a 400d now the 450d has been released. The 400d has much better features over the 350d for not much extra cost.

Paul

over the top. the sky shots look best with hdr, but the other pics? they suck

Yes, some of these blow my mind, very nice tones and colors but HDR can be used so that the result doesn't look like a typical HDR picture That's the way I like playing with HDR.
Here is one of my experiments.

Hi there,
Very nice set of photographs ... Can anyone tell me if Canon 350D (which I'd like to buy) in auto bracketing mode can do +/- 2 EV ?

So far I've got only S5600 toy and the only range it shot in auto bracket mode is +/- 1EV what is not good enough to HDR pictures.

Cheers.

WOW! I've got try this out sometime.

my kodak EasyShare cam took pictures like that, up til i lost it in NC lol

WOW'ish ..... you should also check www.Wallpapers-room.com (updated daily)

You can achieve a similar effect in Photoshop, for those who're wondering.

1. Open your photo (I used
http://www.rffi.org/image/RedwoodForest.jpg)

2. Duplicate the layer so you have two layers of the original photo.

3. On the top layer, do a gaussian blur that isn't too strong, but still blurs the details. (I used 2.8 pixels)

4. Set the top layer's blend mode (the blurred one) to "Overlay".

Voila. Play with the blur amount and opacity of the top layer to customize the effect.

Many are fantastic to look at if your into fantasy or influenced by hallucinogens, others appear to be brilliant photos that should have been left alone. TY Q

Wow!
I used to think that these pics are created by some sorta photo-trick.
Good collection!

You should probably ask next time before taking people's images and posting them on your blog.

For what it's worth: HDR Japan stuff http://www.hdrjapan.com

i need a better camera... i´ve been saving since 1990 but they just get more expensive...that and the fact that i only earn 4 bucks...at a month...that´s a joke if you didn´t notice.

Amazing pictures! Everytime I see HDRs I can't resist but go out and take some of my own.

beatiful

I haven't taken LSD in 20 years, but when I saw these photos, they exactly duplicated the perception of color that I experienced under the effects of that drug. Strange, and somewhat disturbing.

Beautiful pictures, HDR looks best on skyscapes and scenic water pictures..at least that's what I thought until I saw the fire truck - great detail on something you would thing would be so simple/mundane.

Except for the photo of the man on the dock with the umbrella, I hate these images. They are overdone and look like cartoonish airbrush paintings. I think HDR photography offers an interesting opportunity to overcome the limitations of latitude in film and digital imaging, but these pictures show how bad taste can ruin the technique!

Photographers! If it looks like HDR, it looks BAD. Just like in a movie, if you recognize the special effect, it wasn't done very well...

This pictures are awesome!!!

This is amazing. Almost surreal.

Well since other folks are adding theirs', here's one of mine...

My Flickr Page

they are very beautiful.

Soon, you won't have to bother with all that software and multiple exposures. One image sensor company I know of can do these kinds of shots with some of their sensors.

Veiwing all those pictures hurts my eyes.
high dynamic range imaging = headache

gives me a headache.

The point of HDR is to get more detail in the bright spots and shadows, and more accurate-to-the-eye contrast ratios--not to get the oversaturated, candy-coating look that is illustrated here. If that's what you're going for, Photoshop will work fine. If you want the actual high dynamic range, you're going to need to take the same picture in several different exposures, and THEN use software to blend them together.

Here's one of my shot :)

I think they're really good, however they have no depth. One of the things that would make images like these great is if they had a proper sense of depth to them. Other than that, they're no different to some really great paintings.

http://www.americansexonline.com/

the name says it all

Great discussion, I saw a blog like this (http://stuckincustoms.com/) a few months back and it really transformed my way of approching my photography. HDR and Photomatrix in particular has been one of the more interesting techniques ive explored and I look forward to really exploring the field of work available.

All good selections, but quite frankly, I would have prefered this image of mine included instead.

http://www.kingofhdporn.com

http://www.mightypotent.com - they have some cool stuff on their site.

I feel most of the images have been edited!

The human eye does not even see color at that high a definition.

They all have a... Fake quality to them.

Like a 3D render or some game-developer's bloom fetish.

It looks ugly.
Really really fake and ugly.

Thats more like tone mapping =0P

erm..i think you can use my entry to do this HDR pictures...

here >> http://jusdy.blogspot.com/2008/02/howto-adjust-your-picture-color-tone-i...

Now come on... HDR, huh ? And how's that realistic ? Hello fantasy world, let's forget the real life.
I guess living in a grey world would make these pictures cheer you up.

Hey! Plenty of hdr photos on this website: http://hdrcreme.com

Some nice examples of HDR photos. May I ask what kind of software you use to make them?

You can see more stunning HDR pictures at http://stuckincustoms.com/

great pictures. i used a few for a desktop background. they are very beautiful, especially Hawaii.

I think some of these photos are not that exciting and show poor use or overuse of the "HDR effect". To me it seems that this post was fabricated mostly for DIGG since most of these pics are under the first who show up if you search for HDR pics.

These are indeed HDR images. People are associating the process of creating HDRI images with actually being so. You take multiple pictures at different exposures..usually 7 - 12. and you place them all together getting a result that is a image with 32bit of color. Most likely the image your seeing in no way resembles the time of day they were taken at. Though they seem boring and easy at times, it take a lot of work to create them.

You suck dicks.

I don't like them very much. They are unrealistic. The firetruck looks cool.

These are not HDR. High Dynamic Range cannot be shown in a single image on a normal monitor. These are compressed tone mapped formerly high dynamic ranges (or something similar) to bring out the highlights and shadows but the point of HDR is that you can show different exposures to show highlights or shadows depending on your interest or both if you have a high dynamic range display. Once converted to and viewed in this format they are no longer high dynamic range images. They are still interesting and beautiful though.

All of these taken in Hawaii :-)

Really nice art work. Thanks for sharing. Dugg!

Hi there,
my opinion is, that making of HDR photos can be really delicate bussines.
You can and up with unwished kitsch photo...
Like you can see above.

There is some nice stuff there. To be correct this not actually "HDR". These are "tonemapped" images. It's another good tool for the toolbox! Another way to bring photography closer to 'reality' or to 'painting', whichever you choose :-) Check www.360cities.net for some other examples of this craft.

I agree with the previous comments that some of these go overboard however most of them look incredible. Using something like this in an ad or some other sort of advertising would really take one's work to the next level.

In fact, we're looking into using HDRI images in our work right now!!

Great article!

Amazing, thanks for sharing

Really nice, thank you

Wow! Absolutely stunning--every one of them!

This is a great collection of photos! I wish I got more into photography before I graduated college... maybe I'd be better today!

I'm not sure why everyone on flickr goes agog over poorly tonemapped images.

1, 4, 5, 11, 12, and the last one looks nice.
8, 9 looks like a scene in Nina Gaiden (xbox)
all the rest looks fake. it's real, but the technique made it look fake... so, what's the point?

The top four images are the best. With the picture of the cow being impressive as well. Kudos.

I have to agree with [Michael] above. These are extreme and many are poorly executed HDR images. (Sorry, my humble opinion.) The aggregator of these images should have done a little research into the technique before making a selection.

great pictures. really cool!

These are kinda cool, but unfortunately many of them give the wrong impression of HDR. Some of these could be called "Extreme HDR" because they really go overboard on the effect, to the extent that the photos look surreal. HDR simply means "high dynamic range," and is a way to capture both highlights and shadows in a way that scanners and cameras typically cannot, or to combine multiple exposures from low dynamic range images into a virtual HDR image. It would be a mistake, though, to assume that HDR equates to the surreal effects seen in these images.

Pretty good selection!

from what i know HDR is supposed to resemble the human eye in its ability to capture details in both light and dark areas of the photo, right? a few of these are very nice, very subtle and natural looking. the rest ... unless they're there to create an effect of surrealism or something, they look rather weird.

Hi David

Would you mind dropping me an email through my website with more details of your requirements. I'll see if I can help. Ive got some great results with black and white and HDR.

Paul

Hello Paul
I must admit I am not a photographer in fact I know very little about taking photos, but what can I say apart from wow, these images have a computerised effect like a play-station game.
I have never heard of HDR but you can be sure I will certainly want to find our more about it. Can the HDR technique be used on black and white images. I would like to find a photographer who can take a photo in black and white, as I would like to get it printed in poster style and framed for my lounge wall. Looking for about 4 ft long by 2ft wide, a seashore or boat scene, hoping someone will be able to help

Kind regards David (UKGent)

Hello Paul
I must admit I am not a photographer in fact I know very little about taking photos, but what can I say apart from wow, these images have a computerised effect like a play-station game.
I have never heard of HDR but you can be sure I will certainly want to find our more about it. Can the HDR technique be used on black and white images. I would like to find a photographer who can take a photo in black and white, as I would like to get it printed in poster style and framed for my lounge wall. Looking for about 4 ft long by 2ft wide, a seashore or boat scene, hoping someone will be able to help

Kind regards David (UKGent)

Hi

Ive used Photomatix for a few months now and love it - Great piece of software for the price. Please visit my site for some examples.

These HDR's are excellent.

Paul

Actually, its nice to see some photography on this blog. If I have one criticism of this blog and psdtuts, its that the design work is awesome but the photography work leaves much to be desired.

HDR is a cool technique and the above images look cool, but personally I think some are a bit overdone. HDR can be used really subtle instead of the in-your-face style of some of these...

You should take a good lood to Artizen HDR. It's a great software for HDR pics.

There is one more plugin for Photoshop that gives the same effects: http://www.lucisart.com/

those are awsome, thanks for sahring!

Great work. Congratulations. Peace! Saúde e paz!

u can make it in ps but u need to have few photos in different ways of lightening and contrast (or something like this;)) then this different deepth of colours merge and u have hdr image ;)
simply? ;)

*thanks for news and u r welcome soon (i think that till the end of this month i will end it) at my ended website for more tricks and tips ;)

cheers :P

PhotoMatix is available in English for the Mac and the PC. I currently use the Mac version of PhotoMatixPro. A new PC version has recently been released but this new version is still in beta for the Mac. The English version of the PhotoMatix site is: http://www.hdrsoft.com/ [The language toggle is at the upper right under the logo. I have used Photoshop CS3 to produce HDR images but PhotoMatix's "Tone Mapping" control allows you to achieve the exaggerated saturation effects that you see in many of the photos in your post.