It’s definitely better but I still prefer the original myself. It looks more natural.
I think it’s what the HDRTransformation tool does, I’ve had the same issue with my own versions of M42. I’ve been playing around with PixelMath trying to solve the issue and I’m getting close to a fix which involves some mathematical masking between a more heavily stretched image and another that’s not overly stretched but shows the bright core well.
http://www.chart32.de/images/objects...M42/M42_80.jpg
The link above shows what I’m trying to achieve, it retains accurate colour and fine contrast. It looks flat but not artificially
