First Critique EVER: Front Porch View - HDR

[FotoCrazee]

I would appreciate a critique of my shot at HDR...
This is a pic of the view off of my father in law's front porch. I thought it was so beautiful! I wanted to try Photomatix before spending any money on it so here is what I came up with. I know I need to crop out the blue tarp from the bottom right of the shot... Could I do anything to better the composition? I know I am supposed to ask specifics but I am not sure what to ask. Should I have swapped the original sky back into the picture? This one looks a little too gray. Don't be afraid to be a lil' harsh....it's the only way I will learn!

This was shot with a Sony a350 f/5.6 1/1600 ISO-800 July 17
Thanks!
Amanda

[VegasMike]

How many images did you use? Normally HDR is achieved by combining at least 3 images at different exposure levels to compensate for areas that are too light and areas that are too dark. Did you take a single image and tonemap it?

[aspencade]

Hey does you father-in-law take in lodgers...this looks a lovely place to live....I think you need to push the HDR effect some more to get a real punch to this shot....Paul

[FotoCrazee]

I used 3 shots for this one...I will look up the exposure for each one...Sorry I forgot to do that.

He does take in lodgers...they are 8 and 2...his grandbabies only! =) I love sitting on his front porch with a cup of coffee, a blanket, and my camera about the end of October. I can't wait to get some shots of that this year.

I was a little timid with this one. It was my first try. I will post one that I did on my parents mile long driveway that I took a little farther.

Thanks for the critique so far....I love to learn!!!!

[PhotoPhix]

The blue item in the lower right hand side is distracting. I would also crop the photo so that the horizon is not in the middle.

Armando

[Lucylove]

A centered horizon is usually avoided if possible, usually you'd like to position it in the top 3rd or bottom 3rd of the shot.

The shadow and then the sunlit area is a little distracting, It might be lessend if you were to crop a chunk all below the barn (with the barn sitting towards the bottom) and that'll both lower the horizon and also get rid of all that duller grass.

In shooting the pic, it'd been good if you were patient since the cloud cover was over some of it and see if you could get it all sunlit. The distinct line of cloud cover to sunlit is a hard to fix after the fact issue, even with HDR.

The sky could be boosted some more, in my opinion....