photomatrix seems to soften my images

[notelliot]

i've got two images here, one an hdr generated with 3 images, 2 stops apart using photomatrix pro, and one normally exposed image. all shots were made with a tripod, and were aligned when i generated the hdr. photoshop did nothing to sharpen the image after the fact.

here are the images:

the original files were really crisp.. hdr.. not so much. i know a few of you are familiar with photomatrix.. any ideas? maybe i'm just being fussy. thanks in advance.

 

[Big Mike]

HDR is not an exact science...the software is probably merging tones that would otherwise have been sharp detail. It could also be slight variations in the images...maybe the wind was blowing more in one image?

You could try to blend the exposures manually.

 

[notelliot]

it's not just this one image. it softens everything i generate. i think i should start using my remote release for these, if anything. .. and try blending manually

 

[Big Mike]

So are you using a tripod but manually pressing the shutter release? Why not use the self timer?

Personally, I'm not usually thrilled with the results I see from automatic HDR functions.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I've never had problems with soft images before with photomatix. If something was wrong with it, it's generally my fault.

 

[notelliot]

hahahah, thanks for pointing out the lack of an r. makes more sense now!

 

[Garbz]

The mapping radius is high in the image you posted. This is the result of tone mapping over a large area. It's a fault of the HDR process not the software itself.