I couldn't sleep I wanted to play with the program sooooo bad! But there's no where to really take pictures without driving right now so I had to deal with my back yard. LOL Whatcha think?

Honest answer?

in a contest I would rate this about 40%... But this is not a contest but an experiment, so nothing lost
Try to make it look like a normal photo, the HDR effect shouldn't be clearly visible IMHO. HDR makes your shot more sharper (as Itsmymoment would say: "it makes the photo as your eye would see it" or something like that ) It's to easy to overdo the HDR effect.

Have a try at something simple with a structure. Or go and visits jeaniblogs portfolio http://www.pxleyes.com/profile/jeaniblo ... hotography she uses a lot of HDR in a way you hardly see it.

Looks like spring time colors in those young Loblolly pines , I sort of like the effect. Keep practicing. What software did you get?

Yea for a contest i would use the more natural look but i really like the over processed kinda look. There are some that are toooo over done that i dont but this is kinda grundge look. Its fun to me but again i wl do the more normal loom for contests. I did it with thos one but really loke this one. Should have sharpened it up some though.

The program is photomatix. Its awesome!

IMO, we cannot say anything of HDR because the image is too small to see.
At this size, for me it appears to be a photo with some type of "problem" .....

could you post a link to full version of photo?

ok I went down to just 25% of original this time. It was HUGE the first time I put it up here. Would take like 10 screens to see it all. LOL

I will say though I don't like the movement stuff on the tops of the trees but this was my first time playing with the program so I didn't really learn much except how to put them together and move a few options around. I will play more when I can get some more pictures. Any advise with the program is soooo greatly needed and appreciated

i have no idea of the soft, sorry....
but to me the image lacks the "dark" shadows i would expect to see in this image, leaving the overall image too bright, also it seems to have a blue hue that dont work for me.

I would think it depends on the look or style of the work that you; the composer of, is striving for. I like the pictures posted in the gallery of the Photomatix website, seems as if they all have a certain style as individuals. This HDR photography stuff steps the art of photography up a notch IMO. Can you not achieve those effects using CS3 or CS5 Photoshop?

This style looks pretty cool to me http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/gallery.php?id=38&gid=0

I agree with Chapp, with an example.....

I "think" this version is better, but i have no evidence that it is, lol only my opinion