HDR software

Hi,

I have to admit to taking a liking to some of the HDR pics that have been posted on here, in particular some of the work by Garrie. Anyway with that in mind and in between working very hard at the office today I have done a bit of digging around to see what`s out there. All of these have a free trial period with a watermark left on the image or some other limitation but certainly OK for folks to play about with. Might be interesting to see what people come up with.

Yep I understand this is not everyones cup of tea, but I guess we could say that about other types of photography.

Some links

Photomatix. $99 US
http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html

Artizen HDR $45.95 Canadian ( about 23 GBP according to my currency converter)
http://www.supportingcomputers.net/A...s/Products.htm

FDR Tools 49 Euros
http://www.fdrtools.com/fdrtools_advanced_e.php

Easy HDR 30 Euros
http://www.easyhdr.com/

There seems to be various plug ins about as well, though nothing for GIMP users just yet, unless I missed this! Think I might play around with some of this at the weekend.

Hope this helps.

[Garrie]

Good set of link there

I bought Photomatix and just 100% use that as its simple to use (needs to be simple for me) and canny powerful at what I use it for.

Have fun playing.. I've still got to process a set of pics from a site I visited last Sunday.

Cheers
Gar

[theMusicMan]

Hey nice one there John with those links. I took a shine to EasyHDR after seeing some of their examples on the site.

I have Photomatix, but might try this as it's only a few Euros. Thanks for the link.

ive got photomatix aswell, but ive found my photoshop cs2 have a merge to hdr function, so il try and use that next for a bit .

[Meogeo]

I have just seen some results of HDR and I am well impressed, so I am going to try a couple of programs and choose the one I can use the easiest, never ever thought that a picture could come out like that, well just goes to show how wrong I was.

Many thanks Scapula Memory for the links.

[theMusicMan]

Originally Posted by BigD

ive got photomatix aswell, but ive found my photoshop cs2 have a merge to hdr function, so il try and use that next for a bit .

I've never managed to get this working in Photoshop. Each time I try it tells me there's not enough dynamic range between the source images despite amending them to +/-2 EV.

Do show us your results when you have done some, always love to see HDR stuff

[Nick Temple-Fry]

Originally Posted by Scapula Memory

Hi,

There seems to be various plug ins about as well, though nothing for GIMP users just yet, unless I missed this! Think I might play around with some of this at the weekend.

Hope this helps.

http://turtle.as.arizona.edu/jdsmith/exposure_blend.php

Plug-in for GIMP - I've used it, gives a fairly subdued result compared with other programs, but as it presents the image with layers and masks can be tuned.

(sometimes the link fails - I suspect due to the edu server)

Nick

Thanks Nick, useful link I might give the GIMP another go now I have a bit more memory in the old notebook.

[theMusicMan]

FYI: theGIMP is also now available for Mac's as well as PC's. I used this only for a short while when I was on a PC and found it an excellent application. How they have managed to keep this free I'll never know, it's one of the best free apps out there (together with irFanView that is - wish they made that for OSx)

[Garrie]

just tried Artizen HDR - makes me cold, way to difficult to use for me (I am kinda thick ), not as easy as photomatix, although i've used photomaitx a lot longer.

[Nick Temple-Fry]

Freebie HDR - GNU

Qtpfsgui (that really is its name)

from

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

Dark image is original (hdr by creating +-2ev from single raw)



Only just given it a quick try, interested to hear comments from anyone else who has a play

Nick

[Photocracy]

Originally Posted by Nick Temple-Fry

...Only just given it a quick try, interested to hear comments from anyone else who has a play

Nick

Thanks for that link Nick. I wouldn't mind trying this out but which version did you download. I don't understand what Bleeding Edge and Stable versions are?

Regards

[Nick Temple-Fry]

Originally Posted by Photocracy

Thanks for that link Nick. I wouldn't mind trying this out but which version did you download. I don't understand what Bleeding Edge and Stable versions are?

Regards

Bleeding Edge has, or may have, bugs.

Stable, means the developer doesn't think it has bugs merely character and features.

I downloaded both, Stable does not seem to have the Help section installed, whilst Bleeding Edge does. I used Bleeding Edge.

Must admit I found it a bit challenging to get my head around the tone mapping - but then I don't understand tone mapping - yet. One of the reasons I hope others play with it.

Nick

Nick,

Thanks for posting this useful link. I have played about a bit with the bleeding edge version and like you I could not make it out at first. The help section is there but I found it to be empty.

What I found useful was the filename automatically mirrors the settings, so that might be useful to make a copy and remember how you got there. This looks to be a very good little program although with a few quirks.

Anyway here is my first attempt, this took about 10 minutes time wise. Any thoughts , ideas?

Standard chopper



LSD version....



If Garrie the TM master sees this your advice would be appreciated!

[Nick Temple-Fry]

Can anyone recommend any good on-line sources on tone mapping and how the various methods work. Qtpfsgui has tabs with labels like Fattal, Durand, Reinhard, Drago (wasn't he in Harry Potter?), each with various bits to twiddle.

I like trial and error - but a bit of theory might help.

Nick