so which one's real?

Sure you know the answer - these are just pictures!

But which depicts reality 'best'?  Ah, that trigger word, as though every possible variable can be solved and one answer proclaimed as The Answer.  Art doesn't work that way, and as precise as imagers want their shot to be it's still an artistic rendering of reality.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The shot on the left is 'real' in that the camera took it as is - but then processed it according to the rules I set (or the settings that I forgot to change!), compressed it to fit on my memory card 'better', and that was that.

On the right, our ReDynamix offering.  ReDynamix software isn't true HDR but it sure can look that way if you want it to.  I don't want it to, but sliding a few sliders can take you from the left-side image to wild and crazy HDR effects in a hurry.  This software plugin can do some cool things - it brought out some detail in the flower petals as well as the leaves, and boosted the background but not in a distracting way.  It's a fun product that I enjoy using, and recommend the next time you have about $20 - or just try the free sample, that's what I did.

But while it's fun and revealing of detail, let's face it: I messed up the wonderful color of the bloom. The K-5 did a great job with white balance here!