Playing with HDR Again

[Renowilliams]

17956I used HDR with these shots to bring out more color and texture. I'm happy with the result. let me know what you think.17955

[Marko]

I like the composition in shot 1 and I'm okay with the tones - though the image looks oversharpened. You can really see it in the dock and the bird itself. In addition, the bird is not as sharp as my eye would like.
Shot 2 is oversharpened and overcooked HDR wise to my eye, and it no longer looks like a photograph imo.
Hope that may help.

[Runmonty]

I love playing with HDR too, it can be a lot of fun and yield some interesting results.

In addition to Marko's comments, the thing that stands out to me is the noise. I know HDR can really emphasise noise, so I would suggest using as low a ISO as possible. If you are tone-mapping a single image (as opposed to several bracketed shots), really try to get the exposure correct, as even slightly underexposed shots that are subsequently tone-mapped will really punch up the noise level. Likewise using tone-mapping to bring out the shadows in a single image will create a a lot of noise.