maya alpha problem

[Toecutter]

so i am going this project and ran into a problem once i did a buffalo head with my alpha

so i have been working and testing all my scene with maya renderer and everything looks good, until i rendered my buffalo head it looked like this
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/PureCannibal/alpha_maya_hardware_render.jpg

so i missed around with the psd and hyersahde for awhile before finding the problem was the different rendering type so heres what it looks like with maya software renderer but the problem it blew out my lights, normal maps, and spec maps.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/PureCannibal/alpha_maya_software_render.jpg

here is my alpha map its only a jpg for the post i am using targa 32bit with an alpha channel
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/PureCannibal/buffalo_Alpha.jpg

i have looked on online for a similar problem i havent had any luck
any adivce would be helpful

[benclark]

MentalRay is a lot better with alphas from my experience

Plug your map into the the transparency slot. In the alpha map attributes there is a drop down box for Color balance. Collapse that menu and check the box saying 'alpha is luminance'

dunno why but it works

[Toecutter]

thank you, i am not to familiar with rendering with mental ray, it fixed the alpha