I shot bracketed a LOT when up in the mountains, but usually no more than +/- 1 EV, the bright light was playing some trickery with the exposure metering and I was doing it as much for ‘getting a shot within what I want’ as much as being able to do HDR. I find that the HDR in Nik HDR Efex looks more natural most of the time than what I was able to get from Photomatrix, though that was only after the week or so trials I was able to get before deciding to purchase.
I try very hard to stay on the ‘real’ side of the realism scale when processing while still bringing out the pop and wow from the image, which for some photos demand more than others. Recently I’ve been using Color Efex Pro 4 far more often than HDR to achieve the look and feel I want from the sky -vs- foreground that consistently feels more natural to me than using HDR. Using a combination of the Detail Extractor, Pro Contrast, and often the Reflector Efex filters with control points can help paint in the effect where you want it for a realistic yet appealing look. Case in point, my recent ‘fall colors along the rails’ shot which I discuss the process of here: http://jonpfischer.com/archives/510
