You could just upload the hdr file before it's tonemapped (like in openEXR) and zip it up. I've experienced the washed out thing and am yet to get an HDR image I'm truly happy with. I'm very new too HDR photography and suspected the washed out effect is a necessary evil due to tonemapping but found adjusting curves adds contrast again. If there is a way of avoiding this I too would like to know.
One thing I have found from experimenting (which I'm still in the early stages of) is I only need to use 2 (or sometimes 3) exposures to get same effect. I take one with capturing highlight/far right (not politically
![Smile](https://cdn.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/images/smilies2/smile.png)
) detail in mind and one to get all the shadow detail and expose for that. I also take one for the mids. I have taken a number of exposures in various situations and later tried different ones out. 2 images selected from those that have perfect shadow and perfect highlight detail seem to give an equal or better result to using images captured between these ranges as well. In fact the more images seem to add nothing or to actual degrade the output.
Maybe it's not standard to do this or others know why you shouldn't but I've found 5 images might not be necessary if you can capture the whole range in 2 or 3. For me it seemed to be a step in the right direction.