First attempt @ HDR

Three pictures, hand held bracketed. I only used two of the three, the plus & minus exposure. The post processing was done with Gimp.

Below you will see the three - 0 + that I started with.

All constructive comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

Nice shot. Would perhaps have been a contender for this weeks "Light and Shadow" challenge if you took one like it tomorrow.

Nice. I personally might have bracketed a little wider to get the foreground a touch brighter, but regardless it's a nice, natural looking blend.

Thanks for your comments. I took this shot from a ladder. I had been at ground level taking sunset shots and decided to see what it looked like a about 14' up. Then I had a thought of trying bracketing and HDR. It really wasn't a consciously composed picture, just took it to try out HDR. The bracket value was -1.00 EV & +1.00 EV. After looking at the exposures, I really was surprised at the brightness of the foreground, but I see now that it could have been some brighter. This is a fairly new concept for me. I only tried it one time before a few years back and at that time didn't know what it was called. I had two pictures taken with a point & shoot style digital camera and I liked the sky of one and the foreground of the other. They were somewhat close in alignment, but needed a lot of adjustment and it really didn't get what I wanted. Ha! So I guess to wrap up this long discourse (Ha!), this shot that I posted here was my first semi-serious attempt. Thanks again for your input.

I took the image above, made a copy layer with a +2EV adjustment, then used a Gradient mask to blend the two, all visible in this screen capture. I think it makes it pop a bit more. I angled the gradient to keep the left side from getting too dark while preserving the colors to the right (I might have angled it a little less, but this was just to give you an idea).

Thanks Jake for the demo. I see what you are saying. As I have time, I may try to go back to my originals and play a bit. Ha! I really never thought of PP the EV on the originals for this, even though I do change the EV on many other shots. Ha! I am still learning (slowly) PP using Gimp (poor man's Photoshop) Ha!

(Note: My brain only functions when it wants to. )