Lightroom/Photomatix - Single Image HDR

I've blogged a few times about HDR and expressed my opinion on where it fits into my photography toolbox.  For me, and many others, High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a very useful tool to help overcome limitations of the camera in how it meters and interprets the scene in front of you.  Here's a quick tip on how I processed this single image first in Lightroom and then using HDRSoft's Photomatix Pro to end up "closer to the truth".

Here's the original exposure.  Not too bad, but the brightness of the sky resulted in the underexposure of the clock tower.  To combat help bring out a little more of the detail in the clock tower, I made a virtual copy of the image in Lightroom (Ctrl + ') and then adjusted the exposure for the tower as seen below.


With two images in hand exposed for different areas of the image, I sent them out to let Photomatix do it's magic.  Once tone mapped, It was back to Lightroom for a few additional tweaks and then to PhotoShop for just a little more blending of the different exposures.  The image below is the final output.

What do you think?  Was it worth the effort? 

Until next time, keep click'n.
-Ken