Do We Need HDR?

The HDR one is certainly more dramatic - whether it is better or not is down to personal taste and what the editor is trying to achieve.

I like them both.

Regards
David

Don't think I've tried it seriously. Although it may or may not improve an image. I think it's quite easy to over cook the picture to the point it starts to look unreal, of course that may be what the developer wanted. Once I done a few following a tutorial I may have a better idea.

HDR is definitely here to stay, whether you need it I think is completely up to you and your preferred way of working. From a landscape photography viewpoint it's an alternative to using NDgrads etc and some use it very successfully, managing to achieve natural looking photos. I find however that most people using don't create natural looking images and most, although not all, don't appeal to me personally.

I have one or two HDR shots but I do find the excellent dynamic range of the K5, combined with an NDgrad, allows me to capture pretty much every scene I photograph without resorting to multi-exposure photographs...the bonus is that I don't need to spend too much time processing my shots on the PC either, much prefer to "get it right" in-camera as much as possible

Simon

There is a basic comparison of ten HDR programs here:

http://captainkimo.com/hdr-software-review-comparison/

Might offer some pointers to try something different.

John K