Good and bad

Now, let see where we will have good or great results with HDR……..and what about the bad results!!

interior pictures of buildings, even more if lots of light is coming through the windows. This is a typical case when the photo has substantial areas under exposed, with shadows that will be black and without details. The window area will be most certainly over exposed, with an annoying white halo. Taking at least 3 photo we will be able to collect information about all areas, so to have details not only in the shadow areas but also on the exterior, this could be a tree or a nice sky with clouds.
sunset/sunrise, this is one of the best time to make photos. If it is your goal to have details in both the shadows and the bright areas, like the sun and the sky, than HDR is possibly the only solution. Plan to take 5 photos with different exposure (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2 EV, Exposure Value), or at least 3 exposure (-2,0,+2 EV).

action photos, just forget about. Do not use HDR, just use the right exposure for one unique shot. In case you still want to give the dreamy, Harry Potter, effect, you can always process it later on as a single HDR picture, although the results may be not great, and it depends on the quality of the camera you are using.
people faces, they do not come out great, unless you want your friend to look like Terminator or a futuristic film. It works actually the other way around. You want to smooth the skin, and software as Lightroom have a brush to do just that. As a workaround you can always HDR the photo, but use the skin from the 0 EV photo (importing it from a different layer or using the ghosting feature, more on it with the future tips page)