What difference does HDR make?
This is a shot of the church at Whittington near Chesterfield:
It’s a straight conversion to jpeg from the RAW camera image, with just auto-levels and an S-curve applied in Photoshop.
This is exactly the same pic, converted from the same RAW into a High-Dynamic Range pic. It’s had exactly the same auto-levels and S-curve applied:
(Definitely best viewed large – at this size it looks over-sharpened. I promise you it isn’t. That’s detail!)
Same camera, same lens, same original RAW file.
Click both images to see a larger version.
Spot the difference ☺