HDR Not Included

HDR seems to be the latest and greatest.  However, in many cases I think it's overused to the point the image looks over processed.  Now, some people do a wonderful job giving images the over processed look that it looks like something out of this world.  Other times, the image looks just a little off to me.  Finally, there are those that use HDR to solve a problem with high dynamic range images without the viewer recognizing that HDR processing was used.  It's this latter approach that I find most impressive.

I've never used HDR software and have been wanting to try.  For now, I'm really satisfied with the gradient filter in Lightroom.  I can achieve an HDR like process and expand the images dynamic range quite easily and using a single image.  The filter is really flexible and you can apply exposure compensation to achieve an HDR like process.  However, you can simultaneously adjust clarity, contrast, saturation and sharpness on the same gradient.  In this image, I used several gradients that were all high in clarity (tonal contrast) to give the overall 'graininess' effect in this image.