Interesting that you used the term HDR. Something like this is what I've always believed HDR was for, and not the cartoony computer-paint effect you see so often.

But I didn't do it with HDR (and I know you didn't say I did, you're just expressing the result,) I did it with old-school copy and paste. We get the shadow detail we want, without blowing the bright areas as far, and we don't get the HDR artifacts of cartoon-paint and halos.