high dynamic range

I have always been interested in how people manage to capture a scene with such a large range of light from deep shadows to bright blue sky.  I realise I am a little slow, but I only discovered HDR in the last  year or so and have really wanted to try it.

So yesterday I went down to the beach around dusk to a place I thought might work well.  Dark rocks in the foreground, the sea and the side of the ocean baths in the middle and the evening sky above.  I used my wide angle lens down low on the rocks and angled it up to distort the sky a little.  There were a few clouds which gave some nice perspective.

I found some software that you can trial for free (but it puts a watermark on the final image), and gave it a try.  The default image looked a little uninspiring so I tried a few different tone mapping effects.

Here are some that I liked (please excuse the watermark, but I want to try before I buy). So easy and so much fun!