When HDR first became popular, photographers often utilized the technique in an obvious and over-the-top manner. While HDR photography is a perfectly legitimate technique frequently used by professionals, it has unfortunately gained a negative reputation in many photography circles.
But when in doubt, you can always shoot a few bracketed exposures that way, when you arrive home, you can decide whether you captured enough detail in one of your shots or whether you need to blend the files together. Of course, it’s impossible to say for sure whether a scene will benefit from an HDR treatment, and camera sensors are steadily getting better at handling high dynamic range scenes.
