HDR or Bust

Busting a move through my RSS feeds led me over to Michael’s site and his recent post about the use, or rather miss-use of HDR. If in doubt about HDR, try here, but it is essentially a method to capture a better picture using a higher dynamic range of colours; hence the name. HDR photography has always intrigued me and the process involved is very much a true skill. But as rightly pointed out by Mike and the following remarks, there is HDR and there is HDeeeeeeerrrrR!!1 I have downloaded a copy of Photomatix and do intend to take my Canon out for a session of high dynamic photography, but I think I will keep the tone mapping on the side of realism. There are certain pictures where the overuse of detail really makes for a great photo, but the composition must be one where this technique will work. Apart from that, keep the luminosity slider in check and don’t get carried away with the halo effect; a true sign you have HDR’d your photo too far!