First attempt at HDR

[nduralt]

I am new to this forum, I have turned to the light side about 3 months ago and dumped all my Nikon gear for Canon. This change didn't come easy to me as I had over 10k worth of equipment but has definitely proved advantageous at times... On to my picture...

A few weeks ago I tried HDR for the first time and I must say that it produces some very interesting results. I purchased photomatix and am using the plugin for aperture, although the standalone has a few more features that are not brought into the Aperture framework. I am still working with the photo but this is my first rendition of it and I'm looking for some feedback or help with tweaks.

ND

[ED Altares]

I love the colors. Im just a bit uncomfortable the way the image was composed. Perhaps putting the bench properly on the thirds will help.

[wardzach2007]

Kind of cropped it close to the bench there.

[nduralt]

Yeah, I know. Unfortunately that is the best shot of the lake I got so I had to go with it. How do you feel about the look of the shot, does it look like real, surreal, or getting close to cartoony?

[themadman]

Looks like a nice shot to me. Agree with other the bench is cropped kind of oddly.

[JoYork]

Good for a first attempt! If I had to be harsh I'd say the grass is perhaps a little too saturated and the image would benefit from a little sharpening, but overall good job.

[Flo]

The whole photo looks OOF, or very soft?

[squashed]

Good for a first attempt! If I had to be harsh I'd say the grass is perhaps a little too saturated and the image would benefit from a little sharpening, but overall good job.

I agree with the saturation is a little much. HDR will benefit much better with a better "in season" shot. Its hard to HDR dead things.

[onBit]

looks good as an HDR (agree about the prior comments on the bench), the coloration has the Polaroid 70s vintage color look , i don't know if that is what you were going for.

curious about your processing , did you "tone map" ?