I enjoy subtle use of HDR and the effects it can provide. It can mimic the use of a graduated neutral density filter (GND) and allow you to even the light between foreground and sky. However, just like GNDs, they can be over used and result in "fake" looking shots - reflections in lakes that are brighter than the actual sky they are reflecting etc. When HDR is over done there are tell tale signs like halo effects etc. Yes, it is indeed an artform, but just like other forms of art it is personal taste as to what direction to take and how far to go. For me, I like the subtle use of HDR to provide more detail in a scene, but when halo effects and other artifacts start dominating the scene it has been taken too far.
For my tastes, I think this picture has been over cooked. The initial impression is "wow, that is awesome" then a second later I get caught up in the halos around the tower and the mountains and the uneven color on the building. I then focus on these issues rather than on the image and it's subject. That is my take on it. I would like to see the same image a little less cooked. I think for me the wow factor would last longer.
My take on HDR is that when images are over cooked they have a big initial wow factor and then quickly lose interest once they are dismissed as "fake". A gallery of HDR images can have a big imact with the first few images, but then after a while it is "ok, I don't want to look at any more of these...they all just look equally fake".
That is where "art" comes in for me. Art to me is something that you do not grow tired of looking at. It is something that you want to go back and look at time and time again. An art form would be something where you can have a collection of similar style pieces of art and you can look at all of them without growing overwhelmed by the style vs. the subjects. But that is just me and I am certainly not a trained artist.
Aloha
- darren
ps: one other comment on the photo is that the left edge of the roof and the top of the tower are a little close to the edge of the picture. If you want to mat and frame the shot you could run into the problem of the matt touching the subject which will end up looking like a mistake. It is (a grumpy would say) good to crop the image down to the subject, but just be aware of framing requirements.
