This is another one of my experiments with HDR photography.

Sometimes, the Santa Anas provide spectacular colors at sunset.

Once again, I’ve blended three exposures together in the hopes of revealing greater color depth and bringing out the details.  The tonemapping functions of Photomatix once again leave much to be desired – the buildings and the rest of the foreground disappeared, in favor of bringing out the vibrant tones of the sky and the sunset.  I played with the sliders for a while, and then kinda gave up, since it was proving to be frustrating to make the picture appear the way I wanted it to.

These limited tools are starting to make me realize that Kelby’s “Seven Points” book, which shows how to pull the details out of shots without resorting to this crude automation, might have a real value.