I'm new to HDR photography. Why do most of my photos look from ordinary to crappy?

No, Photomatix gives you more control during tone mapping than Photoshop.

The trick with HDR is not to overdo it. Use RAW capture and a tripod, bracket at least 2 stops between each of the 3, or if possible 5 photos. This isn't always possible but it will give you the sharpest, least noisy 32 bit image to work with.

Have you ever used Photoshop? If you're wondering if it will make a difference, you could download a free trial of Photoshop from Adobe's website.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?produc...

As far as crappy editing, what settings are you playing with? I use a really old version of Photoshop (7.0.1), and all I really mess with are the Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Color Balance, and sometimes Saturation.

There are all sorts of tutorials for editing your photos, but sometimes even the best editing can't make a bad photo look awesome, so make sure to always keep practicing your photography as well. I'm just starting out, too. :)

Good luck!

Trick Photography & Special Effects : http://photography.findpolo.com/

Send me some examples and I may be able to answer you. You can E-MAIL them to lambkind@gmail.com