In getting ready for this month's Florida HDR seminar (Orlando) and HDR workshop (South Beach), I came across this before-and-after set of images.
The image on the left is the HDR image - complete with details in the deep shadow areas and even in the bright highlight areas (the stained glass windows). To capture that wide contrast range, I took six exposures at, over and under the recommended exposure setting - and then combined them in Photomatix (from HDR soft).
The picture on the right is the camera-recommended single exposure.
What I like about the image is that it does not look like an HDR image. Sure, I like to create funky looking HDR images, but it depends on the subject. Here, the natural look was the way to go.
You'll also notice something else about the HDR image: the perspective is corrected. I did that in Photoshop: Edit > Transform > Perspective - and then pulled out a top anchor point until the perspective was corrected.
You can get a discount on HDR soft's Photomatix on the Plug-in Mania page of the Plug-in Experience.
When creating HDR images in Photomatix, think about which way you want to go: natural or funky. The more you move the Photomatix sliders to the right, the less natural-looking your image.
Explore the light,
Rick
P.S. My HDR workshop is sold out. Sorry. But there is space at the Orlando event.