80 Examples of Stunning HDR Photography
After hearing a large number of requests for HDR photo inspiration, we’ve decided to put together a selection of some stunning examples. What follows is a collection of beautiful HDR pictures in a variety of different styles and settings – both by professional and amateur photographers. It’s worth a look for some great inspiration.
1. What is a HDR Photo?
HDR is “high-dynamic-range photography”, achieved by capturing multiple standard photographs at different exposures and then using software to merge them together. HDR images can be taken with any camera that allows over (or under) exposure of a photo. For example, even a few mobile phones are capable of doing this nowadays!
2. How to Shoot HDR Photos
Peter Tellone has already written a HDR tutorial which has been released here on Phototuts+. It will walk you through the process step-by-step.
3. Zoopahphly
I stumbled across this Flickr account and was amazed at him only being a beginner – having only owned an SLR recently! If this is his first HDR I would love to see his work in the future!
4. Colin Smith
Colin Smith is a best-selling author, trainer, and award-winning new-media designer who has caused a stir in the design community with his stunning photo realistic illustrations composed entirely in Photoshop. He is the maker of the popular photoshop site, photoshopcafe.com which boasts over an amazing three million viewers.
5. Matej Toman
As well as being a website designer Matej Toman (also known as Mat3jko) is a fantastic photographer with many HDR images. Matej mostly shoots quad bikes and motorbikes which is something different from the normal landscapes.
6. Exxx2005
Here are just a few of the hundreds of HDRs Exxx2005 as produced! Make sure you check out his deviant art account, he is a machine producing over 100 HDR photos all at a very high quality.
7. Lance Craig
Another web developer with a serious love of HDR images. The thing I love about the photos is that each one is so different from the last, from taking pictures of frogs to a panoramic sunset!
8. Andreas Reinhold
"I have two passions: Photography and air cooled Volkswagen. Combining these two is a great way for me to fill up my batteries and stay satisfied."
9. Photopavel
A Russian photographer with a few spectacular HDR images.
10. HDR Japan
"HDR Japan features the best of Japan HDR okinawa pictures and Pseudo HDR tonemapped photography. Members can upload and contribute images to the HDR Photo gallery. Images that are not HDR or Pseudo HDR in styling (tonemapped) will be removed from the picture gallery."
This website features a range of different photographers each with their own styles and is well worth a look….and submitting your own pictures if you are in or go out to Japan.
11. Adam Selwood
Adam Selwood is yet another System Admin / Web Developer but seems to be amazing with a camera. His Flickr account boasts over 70 amazing HDR shots from many different locations.
12. Jeffry SG
Jeffry also always seems to be traveling with photos from locations such as New York, Tokyo, Chicago and Toronto. Jeffry also has a large collection of HDR photos ranging past the 50 mark.
13. Random HDRs
Here are a few HDRs by random photographers, simply click the photos to find out more information.
Thanks For Reading!
I hope you’ve enjoyed these examples of HDR photography and feel inspired to give it a go yourself. If you have any suggestions or ideas for more roundup articles, please post them below or contact me via my website.
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By Peter Sawyer
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Woah….This is awesome!
But I don’t get it. HDR needs several photos with different exposures right? So how is that possible with moving objects?
My “BS” meter went off on a few of these as well, and those that are obviously moving objects (cars, dirt, water) are not true HDRs.
But they look awesome anyway!
How can i create these “fake” HDR photos, with only a single photo?
Do you know it?
I read this in my RSS reader.. and was thinking the exact same thing…
Its probably edited on photoshop.
The Quad bike does look amazing though
Hey as I wrote this artilce I knew they were not try HDR images but I thought they were too good to miss.
Here are a few tutorials about making a HDR using 1 JPG or RAW file.
http://garmahis.com/tutorials/how-to-make-hdr-photo-from-one-jpg/
http://www.online-photoshoptutorials.com/2007/05/how-to-make-hdr-image-using-one-picture.html
That isn’t HDR. That’s “tone mapping” which is a completely different effect.
u take it in raw, then create the 2-3 exposures buy saving out the various exposure levels. it’s not as good as using 2-3 TRUELY separate shots, but the only way u can do HDR with movement.
oooo, I forgot about that! haha, I feel so dumb now
Better than that, you just import your single RAW into Photomatix (or your tone mapper of choice) and process it as you would a multi-exposure HDR. Your RAW has 3 or 4 stops of dynamic range that get thrown away when you save it as JPG and this process allows you to play with that chunk of information. Most of the time, this works at least as well as spending extra time building multiple JPGs from the RAW then importing those (why throw information away then reconstitute it?).
This can be a fun technique when you want to generate HDR-like results of things that move (like people, frogs, etc).
to get an effect like a HDR image from one image you really need a raw image. Open it in Photoshop Raw. Increase the fill light to max, increase the recovery to max, increase the blacks to pretty much max, increase clarity and vibrance to max, drop saturation until it looks right. Then tweak the exposure and brightness sliders. Open the image, use an unsharp mask to sharpen the image up and hey presto!
haha! i just wanted to ask the same: “how do you shoot HDR-images of racing cars?” … impossible … but already resolved … thanks!
you can create a HDR photo from one single file if you shoot RAW. and from that RAW file, save 3 different JPGs with different exposures.
the selection is most of it fake HDR and done the wrong way in my opinion… a few nice shoots thought… but its easy to find better one on flickr group
how do u make a gallery post about HDR and totally ignore trey ratcliffe, the most popular HDR photographer out there???
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/
some of the ones you posted also have some serious halo’ing.
i was about to say exactly the same thing. ratcliffe should be added to the post.
The Frog and first quad look like there 3d and half of these are not true hdrs but pseudo meaning it was 1 raw image and then saved as jpegs at different intervals other wise it would be impossible to catch a moving object without large amounts of ghosting not saying there is anything wrong with pseudo just differentiating the 2 types.
Shame on you for showcasing really bad “HDR”. Some of these are fake HDRs that look more like photo illustrations and cartoons.
Nice set of HDR’s!!
Use Lightroom or Camera Raw to set an image (must be RAW but JPG will do too) into 3-7 different exposures. Then use an HDR software to create your fake HDR. Then open it up in Photoshop for final retouching. By the way, I use Photomatix Pro to create my HDR images.
I only really like HDR when it is very subtle, eg. lacking dirty-looking clouds and weird glowing things.
These examples are still great to look at though, but I agree you seem to have missed out http://www.stuckincustoms.com. Trey uses it very well, not looking incredibly fake, while still managing to get a lot of detail in there.
Other than that great post!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samlink/3898005062/in/set-72157621972364935/ is a good one!
I have to echo the sentiment that you can’t mention HDR without listing Trey http://www.stuckincustoms.com. He is the master of the art. He is one of the few HDR shooters that really understands the benefits and drawbacks of the medium. He has a good eye for knowing what will look best in hdr and he also does a good job of melding hdr and non-hdr elements in a single image. Many of the images in this article look like they just took a snapshot and ran it through photomatix.
Sadly as many commenters have already mentioned, there’s a minority of images here that are truly strong….. the majority are overcooked and are very poor of examples of a good hdr exposure. Shame.. really.
EXCELLENT Collection! Really thanks a lot for this great inspiration!
I don’t understand why it matters if some of them are fake HDR photos. And if you have seen the tuts on http://www.stuckincustoms.com, you will know that you can produce a true HDR with moving objects and using layer mask or even the eraser tool.
And now for some dirty self promotion–this is my favorite HDR that I have done: http://www.flickr.com/photos/floboskifilms/3492736398/sizes/o/in/set-72157621859891101/
yes ok .. but when u use too much “fake” effect .. u can call it hdr or whatever you want.. but it looks ugly. no question about that.
now i’m lot interest on dri images
Great stuff, stunning and extraordinary photos!
I’m glad to see that one of my pics (Lancater Tube Station -> http://photoblog.flanisoft.at/index.php?showimage=57 ) made it into that selection.
LancaSter Tube Station (London) of course…
For most of the above pictures there is only one possible caption:
WHY HDR TOTALLY RUINS PICTURES
and none other! I’m not that much a fan of HDR, you see^^
AMAZINGGGGGGGGG, Abduzeedo has a collection of HDR’s also, It’s called “HDR World” and the photographer is Trey Ratcliff, check it out!
For a “Stunning HDR” blog post from Photo tut, I was expecting more.
As other have mentioned, many (most?) of these are weak HDR and the kind that are a bad showcase for the style. HDR works, when it’s done with finesse and not over the top. There is a growing movement away from HDR now, because so many are doing it poorly.
But that said, there are some nice images here.
i totally agree
Really awesome! Some great photos here! They almost look like 3D works.
I’m really not too big of a fan of HDR photography, but there are some good ones in here. I actually only like HDR-shots that don’t look to artificial and “HDR”-like. You could say I dislike about 85-90% of all HDR-shots and only a few exceptional ones can really fascinate me.
I played and experimented around with HDR for a while, but got online satisfying results with black and white HDRs…
HDR is used to create an image closer to what the eye sees when the film/sensor is not capable of doing so on it’s own.
Unfortunately the examples here are the “wikiality” definition of what HDR is. That is, they are the popular, lowest common denominator, yet not technically correct Photomatix to 600% kind of HDR. Unless you are on some weird acid trip, there is no way most of these are what your eye sees.
This post will propagate the myth that overdone photos like these represent what HDR is but for a much better and realistic list of HDR photos, check out http://www.lightstalking.com/hdr .
Eh, this could be reduced from 80 down to like, maybe 10, and would been a better article. Thanks for the effort tho.
Dynamic range in photography lighting is the smallest ratio possible between the darkest light (shadows) to the brightest (highlights). I teach my students dynamic range in photography and Photoshop. They also learn how to make that shift that creates high dynamic range in Photoshop. We use to have reciprocity failure in the old film days (I still play with this on my 4 x 5) and see the similarities in color effects in HDR. It is quite simple to create even greater dynamic range to the point where the term HDR comes in to play. HDR is not a photographic technique just as selective coloring isn’t. It must be done in post-processing and requires an artist’s eye.
The night building shots, racing photos and people photos are inspiring.
Here’s one of mine:
http://jyrg1.deviantart.com/art/HDR-Wreck-87799656
thank you so much!
Some pictures are really awesome. But there are many pictures, which are really bad examples for HDR, too plastic.
Cartoonish, overprocessed examples of what “HDR” should NOT be like.
I love the fact that you can be a subtle or over the top as you want with HDR (real, or “fake”)! Some of these images really suit the way over the top, cartoony look in my opinion…
Guys please…
HDR is not tonal mapping.
You cant do A HDR of a Car, or anything moving, simply because you cant take even 2 images and merge them without losing everything that moves in perspective.
HDR can mean that you don’t even see that its mapped but have an immense tonal range. Don’t mix this up please, because one is for the style and one is for for the content.
these are great, thanks for posting. i’ve been involved a bit in HDR myself. i recently shot a band and did some tone mapping on the images they came out great. (www.thegoodlight.com/archives/471)
wow! excellent HDR photography…. Some great examples of hdr here!
My favorite HDR photographer is Artie.
You can check out his pictures here, they’re sick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artiephotography/
I also fool around with HDR, these are mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan-gustafsson/sets/72157616859942190/
Lovely collection of HDR!
I didn’t know tutsplus had opened a Photo section.
I’ll come and visit more often now!
Both of these examples illustrate how librarians are not just adding new software but tweaking it to improve the experience for their users. ,
I’ve found some nice works @ http://www.anothereality.net