Personally, I love big skies on landscapes and this has great lead-in lines to the focal point on the horizon. The colours on the f/ground grass are maybe a touch too much, but not enough to spoil an excellent image. James

Just had a look at your PF, which is stunning. Really outstanding pix that I envy. Which is a build up to saying (and take this in the spirit in which it is intended) HDR is simply not everyone's cup of tea. The exaggerated colours and sky in this pic look false. Almost as if the treatment will make up for a not-particularly-inspiring scene. Some love that, others don't, but I suspect that might be why the response is sometimes disappointing. Each to his own, of course...

Great experiment. I think the light on the ruin works very well, not so sure about the blue light on what look like gravestones at the front. but still a good image...

I'm not an expert - in fact, I find landscapes very difficult - but I would process the sky and foreground separately. Either make a selection with the lasso tool or make two copies of the background and then blend. Either way, adjust the levels, contrast and colours for foreground and then do the same for the sky so that each look the best you can make them. Then when they're put together, the result should be better. Hopefully. It's not ideal, but it does at least enable you to make adjustments to the two areas without making a complete mess of the other. If I'm stuck with the lighting, time of day and I haven't got a bunch of filters with me, then I usually expose for the highlights and adjust everything in Photoshop. As I say, I'm not an expert but I hope this helps. James.

Beautiful use of HDR. Absolutely spot on - and avoids the familiar trap of making the colours too OTT. Lovely image.