40+ Beautiful HDR Photos

High Dynamic Range Imaging of simply HDR is a technique that allows a greater dynamic range between the brightest and darkest areas of an image compared to regular photography methods. The usage of HDR causes a higher contrast and provides lighting effects in photos, causing them to look better and sometimes, a little unreal. The processing of HDR captures everything from dark shadows to bright highlights and combines all this into a single photo.

In a more detailed explanation, A HDR consists of two or more separate exposures, taken at several exposure levels to capture the dynamic range that our eyes can see but the camera cannot. HDR is widely used by professional photographers due to the fact that digital cameras can only capture latitude of approximately six stops. When there is a strong contrast in a scene, the camera meter will only allow the exposure to the highlights, or the shadows, but not both. Processing a photo via HDR techniques allows photographers to capture the full range of the scene without taking away any extreme highlights or shadows.

HDR becomes a real advantage when capturing scenes that are difficult for the photographer to capture in terms of contrast. For example, indoor photos with minimal light or early morning and late evening outdoor photography when the lack of sunlight makes it hard to capture a single good shot.

After several photos are captured, the images are then merged with any design or photography software like Adobe Photoshop or Photomatix. There are actually many design packages that can combine these images.

High Dynamic Range can turn simple and seemingly normal pictures and sceneries into beautiful and stunning masterpieces. The use of HDR allows the photo editor to highlight certain elements in the original photo that is captured.

Below are a collection of beautiful HDR photos captured and edited by various photographers. We hope this collection will let you see normal sceneries and things in a different way, and leave you awestruck at how simple things can be just simply beautiful. As for all you professional photographers out there, we hope this collection will inspire you to come up with your own collection of beautiful HDR photos. Enjoy!

The Track

A photo taken under a railway track which beautifully emphasizes the tracks and the blue sky.

Past the Back Straight

A natural photo of the riverbank.

Lincoln Cathedral Chapter House

A photo of the roof design at the Lincoln Cathedral.

Rocks on the Beach

Blue skies and a blue sea.

Through the Glass

A beautiful lit hallway.

Basiliek van Onze Lieve Vrouw Tenhemelopneming

A classy photo depicting two classic styled buildings.

Wallingford Back mine winter

A photo of a river during the winter.

Portmerion, North Wales

An almost unreal yet stunning photo depicting a park.

Fuji Sunrise

Beautiful photo taken at the tip of mount Fuji.

Fortress Of The Mind

A photo highlighting the beautiful colours of a traditional building.

Back In Time

A classic styled photo of a farming machinery.

Exit Below

A hallway with the exit down below.

Motion in HDR

Cars streaming across a busy crossroad.

Stonehenge

A beautiful shot which depicts the beauty of Stonehenge.

Gimnasium

The photo brings out the colours of the building.

Rusty Boat

An old boat looks better after the editing of HDR.

St Mary Cemetary Buffalo Grove, IL

A beautiful cemetery, as opposed to the scary ones we normally see.

Blue Lake

A photo that highlights the lake by taking out the colour of the sky and riverbank.

Vartry River ~ in HDR

All the colours of a river in one photo.

Escape

A seemingly plain building looks stunning after HDR processing.

Ayutthaya

Rain is going to pour over these ancient buildings soon.

Half Sunset

The underside of a bridge.

Westminster Abbey

HDR highlights the colour of this building.

Church of the Virgin Mary’s Annunciation, Krakow, Poland\

A photo looking into the church hall.

Beautiful decay

A very beautiful picture of rocks and the sky.

Sky Tower

A blur photo which depicts the lighting of buildings.

la maison de fant?me

This simple place looks more amazing after the effect of HDR.

Slovak Radio

Emphasis is put on the sky and the weirdly shaped building.

Byodo-in Temple on Oahu

Beautifully edited picture which highlights the colour of the temple.

After The Storm

The aftermath of a storm.

Iglesia gotica Castro

The editing makes this building look that much creepier.

Pennybacker Outtake

Cars speeding across the bridge during the sunrise.

Power Lines Sunset in HDR

Blue skies above a brown orange sunset.

Westgate Park Salt Lake

Sunset by the lake.

Boston City Skyline

Orange coloured skies match with the colours of the bulding lights.

The Vadne

Rusty and old stuff are beautiful too.

Punggol Beach

Rocks by the beach.

Stacks

An empty street emphasising on the sunrise.

HDR Notre Dame

Notre Dame and the visitors strolling along.

Sofia Church

A church looking eerily lighted up.

Washington National Cathedral

A scary looking sky over the Cathedral.