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%

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“.

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“.

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.