What software did you use? If it was Photomatix then hit the default and reset all the sliders. Then just process the default and choose a preset. The highlight smoothing was on 0 and should have been closer to 100. Your results dont look natural, and if you like that its fine. But if you go with my suggestions you will get a really good realistic image.
Yeah I was kind of going with that "painting" look but I do appreciate the suggestions. I have done some others with less obvious effects and liked that as well.
If you have done others then why call this your first HDR? Sorry I'm not a fan of the halo's all over the tree lines. I do love HDR's and even ones that push the limits but these are to psychedelic for me.
Way too overcooked for my liking. Like others said, i can sometimes appreciate the "surreal" hdr's, but this was just too far past that for me. It's way too unnatural in my opinion.
Personally I would never let the camera do anything other than take the pics. If I want B&W I will use Nik Silver Efex, if I want HDR I will use one of the few programs I have. Sometimes when they say the camera will do HDR they mean it will take a series of pics with the different exposures than you then run through software like Photomatix. Its called Bracketing shots. My D7000 takes 3 shots up to 2 fstops apart. But I have programmed 2 user buttons which allow me to take 9 shots 1 fstop apart by pressing 3 buttons.