Wow. Thanks for the critique, people!
Noel, You're right about the horizon. Normally, I work on horizons in the first pass through my images after importing them into LR. Because this was a bracket sequence, I left it alone, intending to do it after photomatix and it never even got looked at...
I'm a bit leary of HDR myself, mostly because of the fantasy effect it bestows when applied with a heavy hand. I have tried that, and it can be a lot of fun, but I want my images to sit in the real world. I got started using photomatix when it first came out, but it has improved out of sight for this purpose in the last year or so.
There is a great LR/Photomatix blending training video
here
I note that there is now a Photomatix plugin for LR, haven't had a chance to try it as yet. (Probably needs LR2)
Jerry, Doug and Kevin, thank you for your suggestions and edits. Yes, those dust bunnies await my attention. For a graphical demonstration of the cause of those bunnies, have a look at this
little movie. (Quicktime required)
I have to admit that I was holding back on bumping the saturation, but now I see that it can easily take more than what I have done.Regards,
Mike.
Linear Mode
