HDR isn't only about coloured shots. The theory was develop to find a method to obtain from film and sensors images with a luminosity range more similar to human eye.

In my experience the new Mantiuk operator, with default settings, give the more natural results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more artistic effects are given by the Fattal operator, but the results are very noisy on larger images:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drago, Durand and Reinhard '02 give natural results too:

 

 

 

 

 

On this set I had bad results with Ashkimin, Pattanaik and Reinhard '05.