HDR is usually used when there is so much contrast in a scene or subject that the highlights can be expected to blow out or the shadows will become black with little or no detail. Landscapes under a bright sun come to mind. The HDR technique is extremely versatile and should be used in a variety of situations, including where the contrast doesn't seem to be so harsh. Remember that our eyes/brain combination has incredible dynamic range, and we can see phenomenal detail in very dark shadows and bright highlights in the same scene. Digital sensors can't match this ability, so it's necessary to bring back detail that will be lost by using HDR. I made this picture of a locomotive at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan with a 5-frame HDR composite. This shows what I could see, but if I took only one frame of this, the contrast as captured by the digital sensor would have been too much.
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