Yeah, I did it as raw, then changed the compensation, one for the foreground and one for the sky. There's halos around the crane though. Is that normal?
Hdr usually works better when you shooting...... if you take a series of pictures of different exposures (using a tripod) you'll get a real balenced tonal range when you merge them........ often the more you take the better the range so 4 or 5 of the same image would produce better resaults than say 2.
Using two raw exposures of the same capture woudn't work as well..... im guessing the halos are there because when you've forced the exposure in the raw software its included pixels to lighten that it shouldn't have, again this is due to forcing the exposure either way rather than capturing the under/over exposed images.
yea.... it depends what the subject is.... if its like the inside of a cathedral with light pouring through the windows and dark detailed ceilings then multiple exposures will make sure you get all the different tonal ranges..... but an outdoor shot of a building or something can be created well by just using 3 exposures for example...... one person i know uses HDR alot recently is Kenco, heres a link to his last one using three exposures...... as you can see you get alot of detail........ i hardly ever go out with my tripod so i havent done anything worth showing yet.