HDR Test - Photomatix

So now that I have some spare time on my hands, I've been experimenting with this new-fangled HDR digital photography method. Needless to say it is quite cool. Here is an image which was generated using the Photomatix tool which can be found at http://www.hdrsoft.com/.

You can download the trial version free for 30 days and choose to purchase the download for $100 or so. There are plugins for Lightroom and CS4. Anyway, this is an interesting HDRI of 3 pictures. As I am continuing to learn, what I have found is that my recipe for conversions to and from RAW to 16 bit TIFF work very well importing into Photomatix. Once working the final HDRI, I then import it back into my final workspace for color enhancements and final sharpening which resulted in this image. I'm excited how the coloring, blending, sharpening and contrasting came out. I think I have finally figured it out.

This particular HDRI was a test of the embedded functions of the Photomatix program including "align source image" and "reduce ghosting artifacts" on the moving aspen leaves.. As you can see, it didn't work so well if you zoom. Overall this is a pretty interesting tool, especially for $100. While I still have much more to learn, this process of HDRI has lots to offer and will be something that I use continuously in my workflow.