To create High Dynamic Range pictures, you need at least 3 different exposures of the same photo, but in this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create HDR from a single image.

This technique will make the bright portions of the image darker, and dark portions of the image lighter. This also gives the image a lot more realistic look.

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Photoshop
Difficulty: Beginner
Estimated Completion Time: 15 Minutes

Step 01

First of all, open any photo that you want to convert to HDR.

Step 02

Now, go to Image> Adjustments> Shadow/Highlights. Set the "Shadow" and "Highlights" amount to 40-50%

Step 03

Duplicate the layer, then go to Image> Adjustments> Desaturate (for CS3 users, choose "Image> Adjustments>Black & White" and click "OK").

After that, change the layer blending to "Hard Light".

Step 04

Let's add some extra color to the picture. Duplicate the original picture (we will call it Blur), and put it on top of the other layers.

Next go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius around 40 pixels.

Change the layer blending to "Soft Light".

Final Result

Conclusion

This is quite an easy Photoshop tutorial to create a HDR photos without the actual (time-taking) HDR process. Download the .psd file from here.

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Comments

Danielle

I tried this for the first time today and the end result was amazing.

Wiliam Waith

Thats a great tutorial. I tried it out and I am very impressed with the result. I will be using this method more often!

Scott

Thank you ... verrrry easy to follow and very helpful! :)

Sarah

Thank you for sharing this I will give it a try... Again Great tutorial! kep them comming man!!!

Miaowlicious

Woohoo thankyou SO much! Glad I found this :O)

Nikky

great tutorial. Simple and effective :x

Michael Plant

GREAT tutorial! Honestly I have read at least 10 tutorials regarding HDR in Photoshop and this one is by far the simplest method and produces the best results!!

Andrew

Thanks for the tutorial. I tried your method and got these results. I had loads of fun playing with different opacity settings.

Ferreira Dani

Best quick cheat HDR tutorial yet. Easy to follow, was able to do it with no mistakes in 5 min. Very well written.

Gem Webb

Great tutorial. Will help my content creating for tourism.

joka232

wow dude you made it so clear what u need to do its cool thanks for this tip!

Ashocka

This is great, thank you!

MT

Amazing

sam

Thanks mate works great.

Nepal

Nice effect, works great. thanks

Jordan Gray

Absolutely amazing thank-you so much!

Dinesh

very quick and nice tutorial..

Rachana

Nice tutorial very quick effect.. :)

Dona

Thank you for the tut--awesome effect!

Nicolette

Excellent tutorial, simple and effective. Thank you very much. To enhance the effect, I may add, when necessary, 2 steps: 1) Adjustements->Shadows/Highlights: increase Highlights 2) Filters->Sharpen->Smart Sharpen: increase sharpness between 20 and 40% with a high value radius, according to need

Ronald

I just have a question. For Step 3, do you duplicate the original or the "Shadow/Highlights" layer?

kreatywny-projekt

CS5 has already a HDR Tool that You can use very easy. But the efect achived in this tutorial is way better.

Ulises Bolivar

interesante

steph

epic.

Hanan alawadh

Thats Great job , keep it up :)

Terrilyn Canedo

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Chan Pore

Hello.This article was really fascinating, particularly since I was looking for thoughts on this issue last Wednesday.

ririe widjajantie

really do <3 it! simple..n amazing result...

Reza

this very amazing ! thx man :)

techtuton

nice piece of work. :)

seo

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Silvia

TE IUBEEESC pentru tutorialul asta...stiu ca suna dubios :)) dar chiar am cautat muuuuult asta, un coleg de munca mi-a zis ca imi dezvaluie secretul daca ii calc 10 camasi :))) yep tough life, dar acum sunt super happy ca pot sa ii dau peste nas...graciaaaaaas

sudam

thnx buddy....cool tutorial...

Deee

Great tutorial! Easy to follow and the results are excellent!

chang

WOW! AMAZING! SO MUCH BIG HELP FOR ME! I AM A BEGINNER!

Tim

Great tutorial! Really nice result

naveen

Great technique bro, i like it

Rotoscope

Brilliant! I did a render in CS and it looks great. Thank you, Alex!

bendol

wow .. . this is new technic for me to make fake HDR . .. . thank you

Jitendra Kumar Yadav

Its really nice and easy way to create in hd image.