Sunset Saturday Evening: To HDR, or Not To HDR?

I walked out of Whoa Nellie Deli on Saturday and I could see that he only clouds were sitting over the Sierra Nevada, not out over Mono Lake, so I headed for a canyon which would take me back towards the clouds.  Oddly, even though there were hundreds of photographers in the area, there was almost no one there!

Shooting straight towards the setting sun was going to create some major exposure challenges, so I started bracketing exposures to pick up more detail in the shadows and highlights.  The first thing I tried was Photomatix HDR software, in Tone Mapping mode.  What I often find using that mode is that it can produce weird light halos around objects, like over the mountain on the left.  The detail in the shadows is good, but it's a little blue-green in color, particularly on the left side.  So a reasonable compromise might be to layer the best single exposure of the sky over this result in Photoshop, and replace the wacky HDR sky, and do the same with in the shadow of the mountain.  

Maybe I'll try a simple average of the 5 exposures first.  That does extract more shadow and highlight detail, without creating weird colors or halos.  I often say that adjusting images in post-processing with the intention of producing a realistic image is like walking a tightrope: it's really easy to fall off before you reach the desired end point!  With the damaged color and sky, this result has fallen off, but it's hanging on by one hand.  I can either try to haul it back up by merging in more accurate photographic data in areas with problems, or I can start back at the beginning of the tightrope and try again with using a different technique.  I think I'll try the total redo first.

To see all three versions side by side, try this album view:
https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5786200310326351313

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