Overdone HDR or Not?

[RoyaltyFreeStock]

I am new to HDR and want to get good...

I use Photomatix Pro.

All constructive critique welcome.

[ColoradoBrit]

I like it!

I would have possibly made it a little darker though and caused a little more chaos in the background. I very much like the composition though.

[dcclark]

I think that the HDR processing removed a lot of the contrast between the subject (the valve) and the background. The result is a photo where everything -- foreground and background -- is bright, textured, colorful, and hard to tell apart from each other. Another way of saying this is that my eye isn't really caught by anything when I look at the photo, since so many details stick out -- it's hard to figure out what's supposed to be most important.

[junglebear]

dcclark said it - it all merges in and the subject is hard to pick out. The effect is overdone for my liking, but above all you need to get the subject to stand out from the back ground.