Using the new Highlights & Shadows sliders in Camera RAW 7.0, you can create images that have an HDR feel to them. As an experiment, I took the best exposure of a three exposure bracket and worked with the Contrast, Highlights, Shadows and Clarity in Camera RAW 7.0.

[Original bracketed images]

Once the image made it into Photoshop, it was at a good starting place to be processed by plugins, my favorite being Topaz Adjust. The finished single image looks very close to the 3-image HDR created previously. Actually, I kind of like the new one better and I only had to deal with one image...not three.

For this experiment, I used Camera RAW 7.0 and Photoshop CS6 with the Topaz Adjust plugin only. The original bracketed images were processed with Photomatix and Photoshop CS6 with the Topaz Adjust plugin.

Link Summary

1. What Happened to Adobe TV and Adobe Creative Suite

2. Topaz Adjust - filter plugin for Photoshop

3. Photomatix - HDR processing