This is my first attempt at a HDR. I did a bit of work on the original image in RawTherapee, then made the HDR using Luminance hdr and finally tried to bring some life to the sky - it was all wash out - by using the alien map filter in Gimp, can't remember what settings I used though.
Sometimes I think this looks quite good and other times I think it looks like a sea of dried mud.
BTW, a local myth has it that the buildings in the background are in France, and I have meet people who believe that.

Anyway, it would be nice to know what others think. If it's okay let me know, if it's awful let me know, it'll stop me making the same disaster again.

Ähh, sorry, when I first saw it, it looked for me as a "endtime" look after the explosion of a really big nuclear bomb.
The sky is too yellow and I really don't see anything like HDR.
Take the original picture, and make the sky more blue, the grass green and the water blue.

First get rid of the colorcast (see compressed XCF file attached for what my approach was).



Finally some additional enhancments to get the tonemap look (I admit; may have used a tad too much aniso; lol).

I agree with Onkel Hatti, this image does not seem to HDR. It was very greenish.
In HDR tries to compensate for the differences that the lens does not capture in one shot.
The scenery was interesting, but did not understand where it would have HDR.

Nice one
It does leave a lot to be desired this alleged HDR effect of mine. The original images are more brown than the one that appeared after running Luminance. Nothing to do with the camera, the boats and marshes really are that colour. They have been sitting there for years, rotting and blending into the background.
I was trying to find a way to get more colour into the image but there's not really much there to start with, which is a bit of a shame as I like taking pictures of the wrecked boats I find.
I'll try the suggestions you made and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the xcf, lylejk. I did come up with something similar when I ran RawTherapee's tone map and to be honest that sky of mine really is a bit wild.
Is the Luma layer create using a filter? it's not one I've come across before.



You're right, Akros. I think that there's not enough colour variation in the original images to make them into a HDR. It was more of an experiment just to see what would happen.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it's been very helpful.

I felt like trying something in that image. But I realized I had not paid sufficient attention to the image before editing begins.
When I realized, I did not wish to restart.
Several details have been lost ... But was worth the try.

I like your version, Akros. You've managed to make the boats stand out more from the background than I have achieved so far. Were you working with layer masks for the effect?

Thanks Caz, I initially bothered to remove the excess of green tones. Then I discovered that there was also too much yellow in the picture.
After removing the colorcast, masks used to punctuate the lighting at specific points of the image. Increased clarity in some areas, and tried to keep the tone of the boats.
When I finished, I felt I had to start over, and do it differently, but laziness was bigger!
It was a good experience!