itt stomach-churning hdr photos

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipM0GfwtX83V-Q_Y28MjwtT7cAH8cz0pwo_pzAF1=h1440

thank you map, ugggggggghhhhhhh i hate this whole aesthetic. you can see how it seduces the foolish photographer or image manipulator but barf.

i think half of it is true HDR (multiple exposures overlapped to get detail in shadows, midtones, and highlights), and half of it is the "clarity" slider in Lightroom (or its equivalent elsewhere) which turns up the contrast within the midrange. a pinch of 'clarity' or applying it locally to specific areas of a photo can be incredibly helpful, especially when i have to 'flatten' an image in the process of bringing blown-out highlights back down to earth. but very quickly it generates this freaky, "too-detailed" look where every bit of texture comes through. i think this might be what's going on with the "meat and egg" shot for example. i'm not an expert though.

i hope that very soon, the abuse of these techniques is looked back upon laughingly by the general public - the equivalent of jacking up a simple Contrast slider to get that intense, mysterious, no-detail-in-the-skin MySpace profile photo look.

Based on personal observations my understanding is that it is illegal to display these photos on any medium aside from canvas prints. Is that correct?

https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/canvas-print/6.5/8/mirror/break/images/artworkimages/medium/1/hdr-beach-sunset-joe-myeress-canvas-print.jpg

lol so much desperate image manipulation but the core problem of the utterly blown-out sun cannot be solved.

Ahem, I believe that you'll find that the website correctly identifies the piece as fine art.

That's not the sun that is the open mouth of hell. Do you not see Cthulhu crawling out of the ocean in the foreground and the ring of smoke in the sky above? That's not sand it is just crushed bone and locusts. OMG this will look so good in the guest bathroom!