Dual ISO help needed

[msavard]

Ok, I'm embarassed to say that I can't make this work. 

I have a 600d with the most recent nightly. I set up my camera with the dual iso module loaded. I set the parameyers to 100/1600. I shoot a picture of my son in a lit room with a window behind him. In the camera I can see its a dual iso image (horizontal lines, red/magenta cast to it, etc). So far so good.

Now I bring it into the computer, drop the .cr2 file onto cr2hdr and it chugs away doing its thing, creating a .dng file.

Now I bring that .dng file into camera raw and here is where the trouble starts. The image I see is a properly exposed window and eveything else is nearly black. I use the camera raw tools to bring up the shadows but even at the maximum setting it isn't doing a whole lot. Using some other tools I can force the exposure for the interior but then the noise is terrible and the window is blown out. I have tried several shots, some with not as drastic of a difference between light and dark and the output is terrible.

What am I doing wrong? I can get better results with just shooting in raw and bringing into DxO. In looking at others results though it looks like dual iso should give better, more natural results in many circumstances.I'm obviously the problem here.

Any help is appreciated.

[dsManning]

Found a throwaway shot to demonstrate a quick edit. (Not interesting & I'm in the reflection)

In most cases I pull my highlights 90% to 100% down.  Shadows over 60. Boost the whites depending on the scene, and bump a bit to the blacks.

[msavard]

Ok, that is helpful. It looks like in your original there is still a lot of tone in the dark areas. My pictures don't have that much to bring out which is due to my poor photography skills undoubtedly. So when I do bring things up the grain is horrible.

Would it be possible to download a raw dual-iso CR2 file from you to try and process (to drop onto CR2HDR, then bring into camera raw, etc)? Then I can determine if my pictures stink or my software stinks (I don't have Lightroom so I have to make use of other tools) or both.

Thanks again.

[Audionut]

Upload a problematic CR2 for us to look at.

[msavard]

I will upload one tonight. Thanks.

[msavard]

Ok, thanks for your help. I haven't had a chance to upload anything but I am getting better results due to your hints. I tried lightroom with the settings you showed and that looks much better. Still really noisy but...Also, I tried some shots that weren't so extreme as I had before. This helped a lot too.

It looks like I need to take better shots and get better software!

Thanks for your help.

[Audionut]

ISO doesn't effect shot noise.