Original image, regular exposure
The exposures have been merged in Photomatix Pro, the settings tweaked. Saved and loaded into Photoshop, added a b&w gradient map, adjusted the blend mode. Added a levels adjustment mask to get very heavy contrast and a ‘darker’ feel.
Opened the original regular exposure file again in Camera RAW -> Photoshop, paste as a new layer to the HDR image, change layer blend mode and opacity to dull the colors down some. Adjust as necessary to avoid that “over HDR” look.
I’m sure there are plenty of easier (and better) ways to do this – I had received an email asking about how I edited a previous photo.
With the above said, I still prefer the original, just a b&w version of it! I fall victim to HDR when clouds are usually involved though.
Robert Santafede Photography 