Attempting to improve my HDR skills! C/C welcomed!

[deepsixphoto]

I've been trying to dial down my heavy-handed technique. I'm wondering if it's been working, or if these continue to come off too strong. These images are carried over from Facebook, so I apologize if they look a little blurry from compression.

(1)

(2)

(3)

 

[bs0604]

I like the first two. The 3rd picture doesnt have much of interest in it for me. I really like the sun rays in the first photo. Might have preferred to mask out or tone down the reddish streak at 1200 in the first photo. Draws my eye away from the interesting points in the photo.

 

[HughGuessWho]

I think you are on the right track.
Ghosting in the clouds in #1 is a bit much, but that is something I battle myself. It can be quite difficult to deal with. The flare at the top of #1 is distracting.
I really like #2 but it looks a bit cool.
Not sure anything was gained by HDR in #3.
But I dont think any are "heavy-handed".
Keep at it. I have been trying to get HDR down for over a year and still cant nail it, in my opinion.

 

[DiskoJoe]

get a flickr account

 

[deepsixphoto]

I like the first two. The 3rd picture doesnt have much of interest in it for me. I really like the sun rays in the first photo. Might have preferred to mask out or tone down the reddish streak at 1200 in the first photo. Draws my eye away from the interesting points in the photo.

Thanks. I'm going to get rid of that distracting flare - I do think you're right!

 

[EchoingWhisper]

They look a bit HDR-ish to me. I like natural HDRs. And the shadows are blue-ish too, but can be easily fixed through LAB channels or warming the photos up.