Nikon ADL vs. HDR + ADL

I took a stroll around harbourfront with my Nikon D7200 this afternoon.  It was a good opportunity to try HDR again and see how it fares outside.  You can be the judge of how things look.

Active D-Lighting (ADL) pictures are on the left and ADL + HDR pictures are on the right.

Covered sidewalk:  I like the details that HDR brings out.

Tiny tugboat:  There was virtually no difference here.

Larger tugboat:  I prefer the non-HDR version with more vibrant and sharper colours.

I'm not sure when to use HDR yet.  I'll eventually learn to recognize what makes a good candidate for HDR.

HDR vs. D-Lighting vs. Normal

Images from the Nikon D7200 shot with three different modes:

1) HDR on high

2) D-Lighting on high

3) Normal without HDR or D-Lighting

There isn't much of a difference between Normal and D-Lighting in this case.  The photo in normal mode is as close to what I see with the naked eyes.  The HDR photo brings out more details of the dark areas but it doesn't look natural, does it?  I would use it outdoor when I'm encountering high contrast scenes.  If I had the D7200 when I was in Arizona, I could imagine many of my shots could have turned out way better.  My phone camera was able to do auto-HDR so some photos from it turned out better than my DSLR's.