Fusion vs. Tone mapping: Green and Yellow Flowers in a Vase

 

Photomatix has two methods for processing photos, at least, from what I can see in the way it saves the files. One is tone mapping, and the other is fusion. 

Wikipedia's tone mapping entry explains the tone mapping process as mapping "one set of colors to another in order to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range." The fusion process has a similar explanation on Wikipedia as "a technique for blending multiple exposures of the same scene into a single image". The fusion entry goes on to say: "As in high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR), the goal is to capture a scene with a higher dynamic range than the camera is capable of capturing with a single exposure. However, because no HDR image is ever created during exposure fusion, it cannot be considered an HDR technique."

I can't say that I really understand the technical differences between 'mapping colors onto one another' vs. 'blending the exposures'. Perhaps looking at a tone mapped example and a fusion example of the same image might help. 

Below are two images that are the results of being processed in Photomatix. I used seven image files (ranging in exposure at one step from -3 to +3). The first is the 'tone mapped' version and the second is 'fused'. 

The tone mapped version does seem to be more 'colorful' than the fused. The fusion version seems to have better pronunciation in the details. I like both images, which - is why I posted them here today. Thanks for looking!