Advantages of HDR

In the comments to this photo, I have been asked by grapf why I've choosen HDR for this shot. As you may notice, it isn't too apparent that this is a HDR composition (compared to other HDR compositions). Well, personally I am not a big fan of these "overrealistic" HDRs - you know.. this kind of HDR where cars look like plastic - but that's just my personal opinion. I rather use HDR to enhance the dynamic range of my photos, so that you can see more details and have better light and stuff. So I try to build my HDRs as realistic as possible.

To give you a brief overview/comparison, I've uploaded the "normal" exposure to the above mentioned HDR composition:

Color celebration // Non-HDR

As you can see, the shot isn't to bad at all. But some parts are (at least for my personal taste) too overexposed and the colors are looking a bit flat. Additionally I'd like to have the sky a little more dark red - just to highlight the mood and the daytime. Last but not least, the reflections on the water, are not looking so nice as well. For sure.. I could have done some raw processing to underexpose the photo a bit, but then the roofs and the skyline would fade into dark and details would disappear. As well I could do some image processing with PS to just slightly underexpose some parts of the photo, but this would be lots of work and I doubt that the result would be the same as with the HDR composition.

Now have a look at the HDR version of this shot:

Color celebration

As you will instantly notice, the colors are much more powerful and the reflections are way better than in the above version. The sky now has a really nice mood and shows that the sun was just setting- though the details of the roofs and the skyline are still visible. But besides of this, the most impressive enhancement of the HDR version (at least IMHO) are the colorful lights. They are not as overexposed as in the normal version but though very bright and a real eyecatcher.

So that's my point of view about HDR. I'm curious in hearing your opinions about this post and the comparsion between normal shots and HDR compositions. :-)