Exposure Blending at Night

[caleb]

shot in raw then saved with different exposure values, critique appreciated

I used photomatix to do exposure blending, HDR doesn't seem to come out well for me and is usually grainy even at iso 100

[danic]

Saving the one raw shot with seven different exposure values is cheating a little If you have the chance, shoot the seven different shots.

The first one has some distortion in the steps, they aren't horizontal. Maybe you like it that way? I'm not sure, just telling you what I see. I think the distortion is more acceptable in the last photo.
With the second shot, I'd crop some from the bottom, the subjects are placed too central in the photo. This shot and the last shot seem soft as well. Maybe a slight touch up with an unsharp mask or something similar?

[caleb]

yes, no editing or cropping yet they were all shot with a wide angle lens so not a lot i can do about the first two b/c i can't really reshoot them