Severe Exposure Edit 3: Single File, Adjusted in Lightroom

I had five exposures to choose form, so I started a t the darkest (so the highlights wouldn't be blown out) and created the best possible result that I could.  There was too much noise from underexposure, so I copied the Develop Lightroom settings and pasted them into the next lighter image.  I had to darken the exposure a bit to get it to look like the result from the darker RAW file, but this result had a lot less noise and only marginally started to lose the highlights.

Whether this result or the one produced from the 5 file average is a matter of taste.  I like the more blue sky tone better in this one, but I think you can tell that in the cloud lighting and color that the other image has more dynamic range.  The 5 file average has more contrast in the Fall colors, but I had to paint all that mid-ground terrain lighter (to make the dumb camera representation more natural, as our eyes would change exposure onsite).  The higher contrast is probably partly a slightly more aggressive attempt to bring out shadow detail during that "dodging" operation, but I can't discount that it may be more effective thanks in part to greater dynamic range in those shadows.

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

Edit 3: Single file adjusted in Lightroom

Google+: Reshared 17 times
Google+: View post on Google+