HDR. Do you like it?

MNiven wrote in post #9391742
...the so called "purists" they need to relax and stop putting so much starch into their pressed collars and take photography for what it is...freedom of expression for that specific individual....

You are free to call me a purist, but I am free to dislike your image, and you are committing the very crime you are criticising by telling those "purists" what they should do. The original question was, "Do you like HDR?": my answer was "no", but I never told anyone they shouldn't do it. It just doesn't appeal to me that's all. Is that OK?

It is a great tool for landscapes, used correctly and in a subtle fashion.
City scapes I like it as well, and can be a little more extreme with it.
For people, if used in a subtle fashion it can work.
When people go crazy with the effect or in the hands of a novice it can really look bad however.

Madweasel,

My point was not to accuse people or tell them what to do, it was to make the point that if you like it, do it, if not, then don't. What I was trying to get accross is don't condem others, sure have you own opinion but don't judge others for theirs....as simple as that

And OK I am guilty of standing on a soap box in my previous thread but ultimately shoot and PP to what makes you happy

I like HDR when it's done right, when it's not 'overly' obvious to the viewer that it's HDR.
It's these sorts of images that give HDR a bad name.

My opinion.

PMCphotography wrote in post #9340285
I do very little PP on all my photos. Usually just curves, white balance, levels and sharpening.

Your dismissive arrogance aside, I said previously that I dont automatically not like hdr. I dislike overused hdr and hdr used for hdr's sake.

Personally, if I approached the beach scene above, rather than use hdr and use heavy photoshop, I'd rather take my time, meter carefully and use an ND filter since I prefer to do as much in camera as I can, since I prefer to spend time behind a camera rather than in front of a computer screen.

True, there is a different look from HDR which no cannot achieve by using ND or GND filters.

And I try to not do much PP on my pictures too, to save time, but each picture is different and may need different attention.

MNiven wrote in post #9404226
...shoot and PP to what makes you happy

Agreed. It would be boring if we all did the same thing!

I'll start liking HDR when I won't know it's HDR.

Bosscat wrote in post #9347149
HDR is like a womans make-up, If she gets it right she looks hot, and if she overdoes it, she looks like a streetwalker.

I like that.

I am fairly new to photography and have seen some HDR pictures that I like and other that I do not, I have also picked up a book that seems interesting on the topic so will have a flick through and see what happens once I get through the other books I have picked up, I guess I will get round to it when I put the camera down...

I think my priniple thought on the polarised views is that we can't all like the same stuff, the queue would be to long!