My Settings

People have been curious if I have some sort of formula that I follow. Well I kinda do. here's a break down of what I do both on the shooting end and the processing.
Shooting: I set the camera menu to AEB(Auto Exposure Bracketing) and at -2 stops, 0 and +2 stops. I'll then shoot a bracket and take a look at all 3 shots. I want to make sure the -2 has detail in the highlights, the 0(or normal) is a well balanced light and the +2 has detail in the shadows. Depending on where the camera is reading the scene will effect the exposure. So 1st I will try to move the spot meter to a middle lit area and shoot again. If the 3 shots are still leaning toward a over or under exposure I will go back into the menu and shift the whole bracket sequence in the needed direction. For example if the -2 shot looks normal and the 0 and +2 are blown out I'll know I should adjust the bracket 2 stops to the left for a bracket of -4, -2, and 0. I keep an eye on every shot I take because it's very frustrating, especially when doing panoramics, to find after stitching them to have over or under exposed shot in the pan. Yes this does require a certain amount of patience but it's better than having to do a re-shoot, especially if your doing it for a client.   
Processing: I use the PhotoMatix software to process my HDRs. I will process each individual shot(set of 3) before stitching a pan. I shoot everything in Raw then change them to uncompressed tiff in Adobe Camera Raw. Sometime I might do a small amount of correction here with recovery, clarity, and luminance(if it's really noisy). I then send them into PhotoMatix. In the 1st window that pops up I nearly always choose these buttons: Align Source Images - by matching features, Reduce Chromatic Aberrations , Reduce Noise, Attempt to Reduce Ghosting Artifacts - Background Movements -Detection High, and always leave White Balance - As Shot.  After generating the HDR image I go to Tonemapping and Detail Enhancer. This opens up a window with a bunch of sliders and buttons. Starting at the top here's my basic workflow: Strength - pretty much always at 100, Color Saturation - depends on the scene but I'm usually in the middle between 40 - 60, Luminosity - again depends on the scene and you should keep an eye on the histogram when adjusting this. Microcontrast - usually set at +10 and Smoothing - is always at High or Max for the most natural look. White Point, Black Point and Gamma are adjusted while watching the histogram. The Miscellaneous settings are set in the middle except for Shadow Clipping which is at 0. These setting should give you a nice start for a normal looking photo with plenty of detail.
Here's another sample photo:

 Here's another photo from Gary(City Methodist Church):

                                    
Please feel free to add any comments or ask any questions! (Click on comments-below)