First HDR - C&C & Issues with photomatix pro

[cwolves]

This is my first HDR attempt, so any feedback would be appreciated. Also, I'm having issues with photomatix pro that some of you may be able to help me with. The two images are the preview and the final result, as you can see they're vastly different, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Their site says that using the details enhancer may cause the final image to look different, but this seems a bit absurd here.

 

[robertandrewphoto]

Well as for photomatix, I can't help you
I use something called Dynamic Photo, which i personally like better

But if this is your first try, it's not horrible

All i really notice are Halo's. They aren't a hard thing to get rid of, just gotta lower the strength and I think it is light smoothing on photomatix.

not bad for a first try though, nice scene

 

[Sachphotography]

Your settings are way off. I can see the gray in the middle and the halos give itself to bad settings. I would play around with the settings and watch youtube tutorials for help.