Hi Barney Fife!
I agree with you concerning the "painted "effect of some HDR pictures. I tried to use many HDR software and methods, like using Photomatix (the worse, according to me!), photoshop... and I ended using a small freeware called "Traumflieger". All you have to do is upload your pictures, and in no time, it creates a 16 bits Tiff file that you can process "wherever" you want. I personally use photoshop. I open the 16-bits Tiff file with camera raw, and i can tell you that your Tiff file is almost as versatile as a raw file, even concerning white balance. The I open it in photoshop en end the work. The only limitation of Traumflieger is that there is no "alignement" feature, so you must use a tripod.
Look at the result by yourself, and tell me what you think of it. According to me, this method produces much more "natural looking" pictures than any other specialized software like Photomatix.
Regards.
