Not everything that's fake is bad — for instance breast implants, but HDR is not one of those things.
HDR = Wrong. Bad. Fake.
not all HDR are bad... the problem with the HDR is the photographer that thinks that HDR will make a better shot... ;-)
HDR is like too much candy at the fair
The Shadow/Highlight slider is starting to make me nauseous too
What? But, this is the way I see. All bright shiny colors and lights. ;)
Fake breasts? Hm, haven't seen a pair that I liked - or maybe I did but did not notice, which then would mean that I probably liked them.
HDR if done correctly: Fine. But nowdays it's all HDR that and tonemap this and the end result is a charicature. The original intent, to broaden the limits of our camera's capture medium to approach that of our eyes and brain combo has been taken away to make room for a shrieking nervousness.
Hum... that's funny. This all sounds like the same comments that "film only" photographers made when digital SLR's came out. There is a lot of BAD hdr out there, but just like photoshop, lightroom, or any other digital post work, when done with good taste and talent, it's no different than enhancing a photo with any other photo enhancing program. I wonder if anyone making the comments above, never enhanced a photo with some kind of program.
Generalizing and simply saying HDR = wrong, bad, fake: personally, i think = wrong, bad, threatened.
Bottom line is that photography is art and art doesn't, er shouldn't have limitations. If you think there should be lines drown who are you to decide where those lines are drawn.
I do like the boob job analogy though. HDR in my opinion is a lot like boob jobs. Most of the time, if you can tell there are fake, then odds are they are ugly. If you can't tell they are fake, then usually they are pretty nice. Same goes for HDR.
Just my humble opinion.
Well, if HDR has an ugly sister, i'd like to do the ugly sister :)