Amsterdam’s IJ: houseboats and an HDR comparison

After a work appointment in Amsterdam, I walked along the IJ with my camera. It was daytime, I had no tripod and the light seemed fairly ordinary.

One photograph of the houseboats nevertheless became my most popular image on 500px at the time. I had processed it with an HDR effect, which gave it a distinctive appearance.

I still had mixed feelings about the strength of that treatment. This collection includes an unprocessed version for comparison, showing how much editing can change the character of the same scene.