My very first HDR attempt. Comments awaited =D

Hey guys!! I'm a member of this forum from just a couple of weeks. I took my time in reading articles written by users in this community and also spent some quality time viewing pictures posted here. And now, I come with my work. I am new to photography and I'm attracted to HDR very quickly. I'm posting my work here. Please reply with your comments on my work.

1.

The first doesnt do much for me, but I think that is mostly the lack of foreground interest. the second turned out very nicely, nice details and you still have local contrast, it may be my eye but it looks slightly tipped to the left. keep practicing and playing with the software : )

Thanks for your suggestion Caleb
2nd shot was a hand held shot!!

Both are lovely!
I like the rays breaking through on the first one, did you have a lighter exp which brought out the trees in the foreground more?

The second one is picturebook perfect IMO, I love those reflections! I havn't done any HDR, but your results are more realistic and photographic, which make me want to give it a go. I'm not into the whole HDR unrealistic tonally perfect, everything showing pictures, they look more like paintings to me, but thats just me!

Nice work!

Lou.

pemmaraju5 wrote in post #12516513
2nd shot was a hand held shot!!

How did you get your multiple exposures without using a tripod?? Or, did you simply use one shot and modify tones? If so, it's not HDR.

I feel that the first one is flat, an HDR is supposed to really increase the pop and color range ( I.E. darker blacks and whiter whites. ) I'm just not seeing much of that here otherwise unlike some of the others I do like the composition.

@Lou: Thank you so much!!

@RegBruce: No. I took multiple exposures by hand held. I tried to be as stable as possible when shooting images and luckily I got good shots. Thanks to "Align Source Images" option in Photomatix Pro which took care to align those images correctly.

@ythe 1300: I will try to improve my work in next posts. Thanks for the review

ythe1300 wrote in post #12518061
I feel that the first one is flat, an HDR is supposed to really increase the pop and color range ( I.E. darker blacks and whiter whites. ) I'm just not seeing much of that here otherwise unlike some of the others I do like the composition.

Nope. HDR puts detail into sunk shadows and blown out highlights. So with multi-exposure HDR you will end up with less white and less black. HDR compresses the range of tones to make them fit into a printable print or viewable image.

The High Dynamic Range of the HDR term refers to the scene (input), not the output.

Of course, all photos should have black blacks and white whites unless there is a compelling artistic reason not to (there rarely is).

To the OP pemmaraju5: excellent first effort. The clouds & sun in particular are a good topic for HDR due to the great range there.

Monito wrote in post #12518208
To the OP pemmaraju5: excellent first effort. The clouds & sun in particular are a good topic for HDR due to the great range there.

Thank you buddy!! That encourages me to work more on it