A or B?

[McNugget801]

A or b?

 

[SpeedTrap]

I like B, it seems to have more depth and better contrast.

 

[namaste_lv]

Definitely B, Much more edge detail, and the color is better.

I'd like to see it larger

 

[Kethaneni]

I would say B. It has better colors because of its less exposure time.

 

[txphotog]

Like others have said, B is much better than A.

 

[Derrel]

B,totally.

 

[teneighty23]

A, wait. sorry, B i hope you can see its no contest either.

 

[ocular]

B without a doubt, not that this needs to be said

 

[BmDubb]

Definitely B... Way more definition... It's a close race lol

 

[McNugget801]

So

 

[rufus5150]

Definitely B.

No, not everyone hates HDR. I think, if polled, most people who detest HDR detest HDR when the tool is misused. In your example, it accomplishes a lot and doesn't detract from the image. Now if you'd taken the the warmth slider and driven it up to max, and saturated the image such that the greens looked like they'd been through a toxic waste dump, and dropped the light smoother such that everything had more halos than a 1348 group painting of saints, then, yes, the OMFGWEHATEHDR crowd would be all over that like white on rice.

 

[UUilliam]

Yours isn't HDR

Yours is Tone Mapped.

HDR is usually over the top and Surrealistic, Yours is just a Great image that brings out the true colours.

 

[Wyjid]

...Or C:

B is the clear winner, and as mentioned above, HDR is not the enemy. Your beautiful image bears witness to this. However this is another instance where HDR is not necessary to achieve the desired result.
I'm curious as to how much processing you did on A compared to B. i know HDRs take a little bit of fiddling with to get a subtle and tasteful result. No less is required from a single exposure. In 15 mins, A can be made to look quite similar to B with the proper process. Obviously results differ slightly, especially since i was only working with a low resolution image, but you can see the similarity. However I'm not posting this to say that we should only use HDR when absolutely necessary. Rather, that it should not be seen as the only way to achieve images like you have. It's really a question of PP method comfort.

 

[McNugget801]

Thanks

 

[NateS]

B....and I don't hate HDR....I hate improper execution of HDR and HDR used in a scene that HDR is not needed or required. Yours doesn't fall into either of those issues which is why I love it....prime example of a good time to use it.