17 of the Most Visually Beautiful HDR Images
October 28, 2008 in Articles by Steve Tolley
After a break for a little while, and concentrating on my University Assignments I am back with another collection of inspirational and stunning images, this time its a collection on beautiful HDR images,
What is HDR?
High Dynamic Range. An HDR image aims to store pixel values that span the whole tonal range of real-world scenes. In order to create such an image several low dynamic range (ie ordinary digital photos) taken at differing exposure values are combined.
This process then gives amazing images that have a full range of tones and colours, which look truly amazing as can be seen in the collection below, I hope you enjoy them:
looks good as a thumbnail. but crappy on my 50″.
So, images can be beautiful in some way other than visually?
Honestly, about half of these are amazing the other half are pretty lame. They lack the H in the HDR.
Beautiful and interesting.
These are beautiful.
Mort: That’s because your 50′ runs at 1080p and the pixel pitch is atrocious.
looks good on my CRT. Colors would be otherwise washed out on an LCD.
HDR at Le Louvre,Barn,Swallowing The Ruins are amazing pictures.
The Disney one is mesmerizing, nice work.
Some of them look really stunning (like the first one), but some of them are just plain obnoxious (like The Airy Doom of the Duomo). Some people seem to go to far with HDR just because you can.
I don’t understand. It sounds like by the explanation that you take bracketed photos and layer them on top of each other? How are the water ones so crisp then? Especially the subtle ripples on the first one and the wave caught right before it crashes into the shore…how could they possibly be photos taken separately layered on top of each other?
These images strike me as pretty stock stuff, these days. I am disappointed at the useless shallowness of the paragraph. While I don’t especially like this work, it would be interesting to find out about the techniques used. There are surely other and maybe better things to be done with them.
I have a few of these photos saved to my computer. I enjoy your graphics. Thumps up..
i love the photos
A lot of these remind me of the pre-rendered graphics you see in Final Fantasy games.
The Duomo one for instance I nearly had mistaken for a temple from FFX.
Some of these aren’t really HDR at all, just high resolution, or edited to show higher levels of saturation. They are all pretty cool nonetheless.
You think these photos are beautiful? These photos are pictures of falsehoods…lies , deceit.
You can’t believe what your eyes see.
Breathtaking
Geez..everyone is a critic these days. Lighten up people. These pictures are amazing. Whoever did them shoot keep up the good work. For the rest of you, stop bashing people, be a little more encouraging. We all have our own styles and tastes. If you dont like it, just shut up and leave.
I like the first 2, the rest are *yawn*… im sick of HDR.
Why are these pics mostly low-rez jpg? You would think that if you’re trying to get across the point that these look amazing, you’d have higher rez pics and maybe in a format better than jpg.
real deal would’v been better ………:P
How lovely and artful those images are.
These look shopped to me, look at the pixels…
HDRI is also used in 3D, wich helps to add realism to the scenes, using the tonal values of the real world in the 3D lights
Hey Guys,
For those who say the images look “photoshopped”…let’s talk about image processing. Nowadays, EVERY digital camera has a built in processor, which (except RAW images) process the captured values from the CMOS and into colored pixels. Theses images are PROCESSED, as if there was a photoshop inside the camera. For those who say pictures shouldn’t be “manipulated”…lets talk about development. 10 years ago, when most of the pictures were developed in minilabs or darkrooms, there where even techniques to “manipulate” the images in order to obtain different results. One could say these techniques were “allowed” because it was an optical process…but the PROCESS itself, chemical or not, is a way to create an image. The process itself is a tool, an “image converter” just like the computer with a photoshop.
Let’s stop being hypocrites and start looking at new technique as different ways of doing new things. If it wasn’t for those who innovate, you would never be able to read this through the Internet.
Cheers,
Vitor Damiani
Love these images. Unfortunately the Brooklyn Bridge does not look as nice in real life.
I love the magic of disney one. it reminds me so much of being a kid again!
@Jason: You can make a HDR image from a single raw file. that means that you dont have 3 different photos.
When you have a raw file, you can save 3 different .jpg files with different exposures (ex: -2, 0, +2) and then merge those 3 together as one HDR photo.
For those that is interested in HDR, check out the plugin for photoshop or the stand-alone software Photomatix
Beautifully Surreal !
Okay…I’ve got the three different jpg’s at different exposures…how do I merge them together in photoshop?
File -> automate -> merge to HDR..
If you want to do it the hard way, you can import the 3 jpg files as 3 different layers and simply use layer masks to remove/reveal the areas you want..
a quick search on google give you a lot of tutorials on how to do it..
http://www.google.no/search?q=hdr+photoshop&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:nn-NO:official&client=firefox-a
Those of you that left negative comments, stop envying these people, they did a great job…….
Some excellent images here, and most of them aren’t too overdone. HDR is a technique that can be so easily abused.
Here’s my own attempt to do the technique justice: http://www.neilcreek.com/blog/2007/08/10/friday-feature-sunset-on-lakes-entrance/
Thank you for sharing!
These photos are amazing.
Some good but most pretty average. The smokey water slow shutter has been done to death.
They all tend to have the 3D bryce or plastiwrap look.
HDR will always have a niche now which is great but it will never replace non HDR as it has a very unnatural look which is not a bad thing at all but it’s advocates wax poetically about just how natural it looks.
This is marvellous…I think such natural images gives a messase that why we lose our life in vain when we have such marvellous life..Thanks to give a inspiration to live…Salim