I've been using Fred's VV for the past few years to add dynamic range and have been very happy with it. Just wanted to share a sample that had a few passes of DR increases from VV.
First is basically out of camera, resized, and sharpened.
I agree with everything, except for the effect on the sky. It looks too fake for me, but that's what happens when a camera only has a DR of a max of 11 stops, and you expose for the foreground.
It's the one aspect of photo retouching where I feel again and again limited by my equipment / knowledge of CS to pull it off nicely.
I use Fred's Velvia action a lot. Invariably, after the basic Lab adjustment, faded to usually about 50%, then velvia, also set up to result in an adjustment layer, faded or curves added to taste for each image.
Haven't tried multiple passes yet. In your example, I'd agree the sky feels over-cooked, and also the greens over-saturated, but those are both subject to personal tastes, so it's OK.
Anyway, it's a great tool! Setting an action to result in an adjustment layer offers great fine-tuning control.
