Personally I think the comparison Boogie posted might be a little clearer for people due to the similar compositions of the pictures:

The one with HDR is on the left and I think it looks a lot cooler than the more cartoony look of the picture on the right

HDR, and lighting is different, the HDR picture looks a bit darker, but that is lighting, not HDR, HDR will almost cirtainly go in, it just looks better, but it is a question that game has light or dark lighting, or as I suggested, a mix depending on the terrain and faction.

I could be barking mad however

Not necessarily ALL, bu tthe last I heard, IF the release date is pushed back to August 2010, beta will be cloth map for the rest of 2009. And I am sure that is all subject to change. It will probably be "cloth map until we are X% locked down on gameplay features".

I go with #2 because it evokes the mood of the dark creepy forest better for me. Bother are good in their own way and both have problems.

In #2 the brightness of the rooftops contrasts with the darkness of the forest. Where as the roofs should be bright in #1 and more brightness in general surrounding the desert.

I think what you need is some kind of appropriate weather simulator. Deserts are usually ALWAYS bright and sunny. When it isn't watch out for flash flooding. (that could make an awesome random event!) Places where there are forests are more often cloudy.

Is it possible with the technology you're using to create some kind of "Partially cloudy" lighting effect over the forest areas?

Speaking of cool lighting, I'd be interested in some sort of "Veil of Sauron" where he created dark clouds to cover the land and protect his creatures that were vulnerable to sunlight.

That.

The above sample, posted by Jonny is a different set entirely, the second one is with no HDR at all, you would get that on very low end video cards. The issue brought up in brads post, is separate. It is simply a question of what we want the "Look" of Elemental to be, largely dew to different settings of the HDR, and the Bloom. 

What  the true battle is, to come up with a lighting system that complement the "illustrated" of the game. We very much want you to be able to tell a Elemental Screenshot from any other game, at a glance.

We are concerned that if the colors and contrast are to high, things will look to cartoony. But if we soften it to much it will looked washed out. As we get a bit closer to locking it down, we will have some more apples to apples shots to compared. We will most likely have a slider or two to adjust it. 

Yes, they are. I am looking forward to it immensely.  The developers have been mentioning that for the last few journals before the preview articles…

We will be, eventually. From what I understand of their plan, it's going to be set up much the way the TA beta was. Each week or two a new beta version will introduce a new feature, race, etc so that the testers are pretty much forced to investigate a wide range of content and mechanics, rather than focusing totally on their favorite part of the game.

To paraphrase the "welcome to hell" topic, don't expect the beta to be fun at any given point. You're supposed to be wringing the hell out of the game, having fun doing it is a distant second in terms of priority.

To be honest, I can't see much lightning differnce between these two screenshots either... If you look at the forest in the bottom right corner from the first screenshot, and compared it to the forest in the second one... Looks the same to me...

If we could get the same composition, same zoom level,... on two screenshots with a different lightning setting, it would make things easier to compare. For now, I don't care which one I'll get, as long as I get it...

Black and white maybe that's where I got my idea for lighting based on faction or terrain. I Do think it would be a very cool effect.

its hard to believe lighting makes such a difference.

Are you talking about the comparison shot for HDR/No HDR?

Other than the smoke trail from the chimney, which is a matter of camera angle more than anything else, I don't see anything that can't be recognized from the left shot alone.  Some things are harder to see, yes, but that's because of the angle.