HDR versus Tonemapping

synthsound:

maznu:

Tonemapped HDR of Dove Stone Reservoir

Wow, HDRs tend to look terrible, but this is great. 

I wonder if all tone mapped HDRs are so subtle with colours and tones. 

Unfortunately no. Tonemapping is what you do when you convert a HDR into something you can display on a bog-standard 8-bit screen. Really all “HDR” pictures you see online have been tonemapped. I just don’t go overboard with the settings and end up with ridiculous colours and halos around everything. I just use it enough to give detail to the dark and especially light parts of an image. Plenty more examples.