HDR study

I've came earlier home today, so I decided to try something out that I was eager over the last few days, and that's try and make a study HDR shot and do a LOT of experimenting with it.
I popped the camera out as fast as possible, shot 3 bracketed photos at -3, -1 and 1... all handheld (call me insane, yes... but I was curious how the alignment feature works in photomatrix ) and came back to the pc.

I've come to the conclusion that 3 independent raw files are much better when it comes to making HDR images. I've also tried using a single raw file and make two additional exposures via Lightroom from that same file, but the major issue is noise. It's too much pronounced because each "noisy pixel" is in the exact same spot in all three photos. hence, when you merge them into a single HDR file, the noise gets multiplied and you get lots of trash. True, I've tried running these soft-generated over and under exposed images through Neat Image or similar software. It does lighten the noise amount, but it also kills the details in some crucial places. In general, my decision is to shoot 3 raw files if I intend to make a HDR image... and of course, use a tripod .

After playing around in Photomatrix and deciding which settings I like the most, the final product was then exported to a tiff file and further processed in photoshop. I've become a huge fan of selective color adjustments . it gives so much space for creativity and surrealism. Except SC, I've played around a bit with the saturation and image vibrance to achieve what you see now.

In general, this pic is an utter mess of extreme eye-burning contrast and colors, without any clear composition and motif, but still I like it in a certain way. Especially since I know how the original file looks like.

Comments are more then welcome on this one