Faux HDR in Lightroom

[Fangman]

Single image processed in Lightroom3 to give the "Holiday Postcard" effect

from below

 

[mistermonday]

The after image is way over-saturated for me, making the color unnatural. You have induces a strong halo around the trees on the left side of the image. I see some spots or blotches in the sky (center and lower right) which could be dirt on lens or sensor, or they could be a result of your processing.
Regards, Murray

 

[Bynx]

I find calling that Faux HDR an insult to those trying to give HDR a respectable name. Please learn the difference between HDR and and bad tone mapping. Your original is the superior image.

 

[McNugget801]

I find calling that Faux HDR an insult to those trying to give HDR a respectable name. Please learn the difference between HDR and and bad tone mapping. Your original is the superior image.

Amen to that.
The edit is horrible compared to the original.

 

[Fangman]

I agree with you - nothing to beat bracketed exposures about 2 stops each way, but I thought I would follow a tutorial on Lightroom to see what it came out like - on a 6x4 print it looked as if it belonged on a seaside rack of tatty postcards.

Shortly after this outing I replaced the CF card in my 40D and blew a motherboard - very expensive! Now using a 600D with a clean sensor!

 

[robertandrewphoto]

If you want to achieve an effect similar to HDR in lightroom, simply bump up your fill light a decent amount, drop the contrast, bump up the blacks, and then play around with the curves.

If you do it correctly you can make a very respectable picture. This picture did not need any extra exposures for an HDR image though, you captured about 90% of the light range in your original image.

 

[caveman]

Agreed, the original is much nicer! Keep trying though

 

[EchoingWhisper]

Try increasing saturation/vibrance then use the Unsharp Mask on a high amount.