Icy HDR

[Jflimbo]

Hi All,
New to HDR and the forum.
I just completed this image and am looking for any and all analysis/critique.
Taken with Rebel XSI, kit 18-55, ISO 100, f5.7, 1/400th.
Merged with Photomatix lite and then tweaked a bit in LR.

One question I have is in regards to embedding images. Before I ask this I have searched and been unable to completely answer my question. The image as posted here on the forum has lost a fare bit of sharpness from the image I originally exported from LR. My question is, what method is best to reduce the size (bytes) of an image without compromising to much on the image? Is this even where I am losing sharpness or is it through compression and a trip through Flickr? If i lock the dimensions of an image, should I drag the Jpeg quality slider down in order to reduce the size of the file?

Thanks for the help.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4305858478_131f275a10_o.jpg

[CWILL]

Beautiful shot. I think the whole picture looks processed and leveled evenly. Goodjob

[Jflimbo]

One more just out of photomerge
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4306012556_044387711e_o.jpg

[jodelak]

very nice! love the cloud formation too!

[chomish]

Both are very nice shot IMO. I like them, and doesnt look way over done, which is the case with alot of first attempts with HDR photographs.

[drumnut01]

Those are both amazing. If they were mine, I'd print them big and hang them.