Thanks very much toolz--this is exactly what I had in mind when I started this thread in the first place. I'm bookmarking this thread as well. It does seem to me, however, that in the absence of a good HDR renderer (such as those of us using Bryce), a reasonable substitution could be made (though obviously nowhere near as good as the real thing) using a paint program and a combination of color/contrast filters and the "blooming" method I described above. I believe that this is how they simulate HDR in next-gen video games such as Oblivion and Half-Life2: Lost Coast. Obviously real HDR is out in real time =)