There has been quite a bit of discussion going on over at Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider Blog relative to the topic of HDR (High Dynamic Range ) image processing. The discussion all started with a Scott referencing a quotation about HDR that originally appeared on Dave Cross’s Blog.

Some of the comments remind me of the Chevy vs Ford, Toyota vs Honda, Canon vs Nikon, film vs digital arguments.

Personally, if the person creating the image is happy with the results what difference does it make what process was used to get there. Whether you used negative film, Polaroid film, digital capture, some processing is done to obtain the final results. Heck, even Ansel Adams manipulated the processing to create the final results of what he  “saw” as Yosemite.

Scott goes on to mention “The biggest trigger point for most commenters seemed to be the amount or style of HDR tonemapping applied to a photo, and they seemed to feel that the over-processing was strictly to hide bad photographic technique.”

Can HDR be over done ? Sure, but when processed correctly (such as those done by  Ben Willmore), HDRI can be the proper artistic technique to use and is better than the same image simply “Developed”.

Personally, I prefer a more subtle HDR tone mapping as done in the image below with final processing in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Though at times I do like to push the effect to what is obiviously not “real” but I do so because I personally like the effect, such as the image shown here.

Bottom line to me is, if you like what you are doing,  create it and have fun doing it.

For an in-depth tutorial on the creation of and HDR image check out “My Deconstruction of the HDR image” by RC Concepcion.