HDR Photography ... Hand-Held vs. Tripod

On a trip to Louisiana this past March, I had an opportunity to photograph in HDR both using a tripod and hand-holding the camera without a tripod.  With images photographed both ways, I have a basis for comparing both techniques.  After processing all the images in Nik HDR Efex Pro, the results surprised me.  Here's a sample of the best of the images, captioned as hand-held or tripod. 




Hand-Held




Hand-Held




Tripod




Hand-Held




Tripod




Hand-Held


All the hand-held images were tonemapped over three exposures at minus 2, zero, and plus 2.  The tripod shot images, because of the stability of the camera, were exposed over 5 to 7 frames separated by at least one f stop each.  Obviously, the "blur threshold" dictated the slowest shutter speed of hand-held exposures. There was no such restriction for the tripod shots, although the movement of branches in the wind was a concern.

Based on these results, I am convinced there is little risk in taking hand-held HDR shots as long as the slowest shutter speed doesn't cause blurring.  My Canon cameras bracket only three exposures, but I believe other cameras might auto-bracket as many as five exposures.  Such cameras would present an advantage in hand-held HDR photography.