My First HDR

I've manually combined exposures a few times but have always avoided HDR software. But I decided to give it a try. My goal was to recover the blown highlights outside the cave but keep it very light, so it's not obvious it's an HDR.

I committed a mortal sin and used Photoshop's "HDR Pro." It looked god-awful afterwards, but I did some adjustments with luminosity masks, etc. and I think I like it now (and it was faster than manually combining the two).

I thought I'd post it here, though, to see if other people think it looks natural, as I don't want to fall into the dreaded "HDR Hole."

Here's another one from a nearby cave that is just a single exposure...no HDR required.

The highlights where you exit the cave looks a little too saturated, but overall these look great.

These look terrific, Grant! Todd's sharp eye caught my only nit in #1.
Good job in straddling that hole.

I like both of these.
The interior exposure looks spot on.
The exterior still looks a little hot on my monitor, but of course, you may not want to go much darker, in line with your natural look.

Looks good to me, meaning it doesn't look like hdr.

Rifle Ice Caves are a good challenge and both shots look fine to me.

Hoping to catch some of the spring ice there first of next month.

Thanks for the feedback! Here's a minor update with some of the blues near the cave exit desaturated.

Nice Grant! Looks very natural to me too, and the hot exterior Bill mentions is just fine for me in this context.

Glad to see you survived a bout of HDR. Looks good to me. Nice comp too.

The repost does look better at the opening. Nice shots, both. Love that blue color.

Yep, I like the repost better too. Doesn't look like an HDR at all. Looks like a tight fit though :-)

Great detail Really like the color in the ice.