A couple of years ago, I have using the HDR technique. And since then almost all of my photographs (like 60 percent) are being processed by the HDR technique.
My blog here at www.lightsandbytes.com show how I post process my images using the latest HDR software components like Photomatix by www.hdrsoft.com (somtimes) in combination with Adobe Lightroom. Usually I start with Adobe Lightroom to do all the cropping and adjustment of the photograph and export it to Photomatix to create the final HDR image.
This has not always been the case; earlier I have started directly using Photomatix. The disadvantage of this process is that I could not really find my photos anymore and I could not really crop and adjust the final result.
Also, over the years I started to develop a certain procedure about the post processing. I personally think I have evolved using digital post processing with all the software components out there.
I think that you can clearly see this at my Flickr Account – If you start at the first page of my account, you can see how extreme the HDR look was when I have post processed my images by then. That is what most of the people do when they first start operating Photomatix or any other HDR program out there. Also over the years I started creating my own presets for Photomatix to make the picture look the way it reflects more the “real” world. To me, this just fits better!