Photomatix Query

[SonicChronicler]

Hello there,
I went out this evening to capture some images to process as HDRs. Unfortunately, my camera (a Fuji S7000) won't bracket RAWs so the sources have to be from JPEG.

Photomatix merged the pictures fine, and I tonemapped them - no problem, however, when I came to tonemap the photo below I noticed that the preview generated was quite different from the final processed file - in my view the preview had a better appearance.

Looking back at my other files, it seems that this happens every time I tonemap a picture - anyone have any clues? Valdore? Anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Sonic

The Photomatix preview (screengrab)

The tonemapped file

 

[onomatopoeia]

I've seen this issue discussed in the Photomatix Group on Flickr. To my knowledge, no solutions have been presented.

 

[Edge100]

First off, great image. This is a perfect subject for an HDR!

Unfortunately, I've also found this to be the case; the Photomatix preview gives completely different results than the final output. I've found that you generally need to tame the highlights in the preview relative to what you really want, in order to get a good final image; your example above seems to jive with that.