Checked out HDR software, surprise "winner"

pingflood · 10-13-2008, 06:03 AM

Decided to check out some HDR packages since I've been curious about it. HDR can be really neat, really overdone (sometimes to great effect), and is just a technically interesting concept.

It seems like everybody I know uses and loves Photomatix, so that was my first stop. Downloaded the trial and checked it out. Can't say I was overly impressed; sure, it does a nice job with the images, but the user interface is clunky and the performance was less than impressive. I was pretty surprised as this seems to be more or less the 'standard' for HDR.

So I downloaded 8 or 9 packages to check out. Some I struck off the list immediately (like Artizan, which crashed severely on the first go), and a few more I gave a little more in-depth evaluation.

One big thing that I did not realize initially was how much image alignment comes into play. I have a good tripod but at 100% some of the shots I did were slightly off, and it only takes a pixel or two to make the result less than desirable. I was not happy with the auto alignment of ANY of the programs. All of them seemed to require some manual tweaking. That interface was vastly different among the packages!

In the end, one software won me over: Dynamic Photo HDR. The user interface is great, it is VERY fast on my lowly dual core laptop (Turion TL-58), and the alignment tool flat out ROCKS. And it was only $55 which is much better than some of the other ones! I wish it had a RAW converter (EDIT: oops, it does, for some reason that wasn't working in the trial for me), but I can live without it for the little HDR I will do.

So, color me surprised, because I expected to like Photomatix and to be honest it was one of the packages I liked the least.

Just thought I'd share in case anybody's looking into this.

(And I posted a more garish/overdone sample here on my blog.)

Last edited by pingflood; 10-13-2008 at 04:19 PM.

soccerjoe5 · 10-13-2008, 06:17 AM

That's interesting. I'll check it out. I'm looking into the Photomatix Plug-in for Lightroom.

LaRee · 10-13-2008, 07:41 AM

Originally posted by soccerjoe5

That's interesting. I'll check it out. I'm looking into the Photomatix Plug-in for Lightroom.

I wasn't aware there was such a plug in for lightroom. That would be cool if it works well.
Nice photo you posted here Pingflood.

Jasvox · 10-13-2008, 08:00 AM

I second the kudos for Dynamic HDR. I have found it much easier to use than Photomatix and with the alignment tool, prevents any unwanted ghosting or blurred edges when shooting 3 to 5 bracketed shots instead of a bracketed shot from one photograph. I also find the result to be much more controllable and results to be more "real"with Dynamic. Lastly, the little watermark from Dynamic is so tiny and restricted to the very bottom corner, unlike the Photomatix watermark which is all over the image, with the trial version that is...it seems to be a better tool to "try before you buy" Here is one from a series I took a few days ago here in Athens.

Jason

tybeck · 10-13-2008, 08:35 AM

Could you list the other programs that you tried? I'm interested in this as well. Right now I'm almost settled on FDRTools and wondered if that was among your testers.

raz-0 · 10-13-2008, 03:41 PM

I also like dynamic HDR. Best interface so far IMO.

Mine seems to open my PEFs just fine.

pingflood · 10-13-2008, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by raz-0

I also like dynamic HDR. Best interface so far IMO.

Mine seems to open my PEFs just fine.

Doh, you are right! I couldn't get it to work in the trial, but it does work fine here in the registered version... maybe something wasn't working right before because they're supposed to be identical.

Originally posted by tybeck

Could you list the other programs that you tried? I'm interested in this as well. Right now I'm almost settled on FDRTools and wondered if that was among your testers.

Don't recall them all (removed most by now), but some were:

Photomatix
Dynamic Photo HDR
Artizen HDR
FDRtools (installer bombed out on Vista SP1 for me, so no real trial there)
Picturenaut
EasyHDR
Essential HDR

I'd like to hear how you like FDRtools; perhaps I shouldn't have given up on it so easily but DPHDR was running so well that I just was not inclined to make further effort to get past the crashing installer.

tybeck · 10-17-2008, 10:05 AM

Thanks for the list. I've tried Artizen HDR and Photomatrix as well, Photomatrix won hands down. Need to look at some of the others you mentioned.

As for FDRTools I found it easier to produce more realistic HDR photos in it than in Photomatrix, but I could get the surreal look as well. The Pro version has a good manual alignment tool and I preferred the mixing tools to Photomatrix. FDRTools can be as automatic as Photmatrix on the image mixing end, but I felt I had more control between the three modes offered in the Pro version. Photomatrix has more options for the final rendering, but I found it more difficult to get a "real" looking image. I haven't bought FDRTools yet only because the USD is so weak against the Euro. Might be for the best until I need what Dynamic HDR can do.

Isaac314 · 10-17-2008, 11:33 AM

I use photomatix and so far i havent felt the need to try any others. I just love the comprehensive control you get over every detail of the processing. Then i take it into photoshop and add the finishing touches.

Here are some shots i took at the hospital in my town the other night.

I Lied. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sunset Reaching on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sunset over Loughborough on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

pingflood · 10-17-2008, 12:16 PM

Isaac: those are definitely a little "over the top" but the results are outstanding. How many exposures did you use, and did you start from raw files?

mummy · 10-17-2008, 02:06 PM

Thats is some great pictures you guys have. Can I use wireless remote to take continous pictures?

dave sz · 10-17-2008, 02:18 PM

photomatix is...meh at best. I've been toying with CS3 HDR merge lately. Seems good...

Isaac314 · 10-17-2008, 02:42 PM

Originally posted by pingflood

Isaac: those are definitely a little "over the top" but the results are outstanding. How many exposures did you use, and did you start from raw files?

What do you mean by over the top? I know as images they are a pretty insane but i tried not to overdo the "HDRness" (i.e. flat oversharpened images). Thanks for your opinion.

I used 2 exposures, one underexposed by 2 clicks, and the other overexposed by 2 clicks (i dont know what the e.v. is of that...

)

dave sz, I thought CS3 only merged HDR, but i dont think it can tone map? at least not very well. tone mapping is the processing which turns an HDR image into a detailed and full image, before that it is just a little flatter and with less clipping...

pingflood · 10-17-2008, 03:12 PM

Originally posted by IsaacEastgate

What do you mean by over the top? I know as images they are a pretty insane but i tried not to overdo the "HDRness" (i.e. flat oversharpened images). Thanks for your opinion.

Over the top as in, I guess, hyper-realistic. It was a compliment!

HDR is a really nice tool for conveying what you "saw" in your mind but the camera had a hard time capturing. Your stuff looks great.

mummy: I think the Pentax Remote F does allow for using bracketing mode, but I am not 100% certain.

sharko · 10-18-2008, 09:52 AM

Dynamic Photo HDR looks like a great piece of software but too bad it's only available for PC...I do all my photo management/editing on a Mac.

10-13-2008, 06:03 AM	#1
pingflood Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Borås, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,169	Checked out HDR software, surprise "winner" Decided to check out some HDR packages since I've been curious about it. HDR can be really neat, really overdone (sometimes to great effect), and is just a technically interesting concept. It seems like everybody I know uses and loves Photomatix, so that was my first stop. Downloaded the trial and checked it out. Can't say I was overly impressed; sure, it does a nice job with the images, but the user interface is clunky and the performance was less than impressive. I was pretty surprised as this seems to be more or less the 'standard' for HDR. So I downloaded 8 or 9 packages to check out. Some I struck off the list immediately (like Artizan, which crashed severely on the first go), and a few more I gave a little more in-depth evaluation. One big thing that I did not realize initially was how much image alignment comes into play. I have a good tripod but at 100% some of the shots I did were slightly off, and it only takes a pixel or two to make the result less than desirable. I was not happy with the auto alignment of ANY of the programs. All of them seemed to require some manual tweaking. That interface was vastly different among the packages! In the end, one software won me over: Dynamic Photo HDR. The user interface is great, it is VERY fast on my lowly dual core laptop (Turion TL-58), and the alignment tool flat out ROCKS. And it was only $55 which is much better than some of the other ones! I wish it had a RAW converter (EDIT: oops, it does, for some reason that wasn't working in the trial for me), but I can live without it for the little HDR I will do. So, color me surprised, because I expected to like Photomatix and to be honest it was one of the packages I liked the least. Just thought I'd share in case anybody's looking into this. (And I posted a more garish/overdone sample here on my blog.) Last edited by pingflood; 10-13-2008 at 04:19 PM.

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10-13-2008, 06:17 AM	#2
soccerjoe5 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Philippines Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,343	That's interesting. I'll check it out. I'm looking into the Photomatix Plug-in for Lightroom.

10-13-2008, 07:41 AM	#3
LaRee Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: San Diego Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,225	Originally posted by soccerjoe5 That's interesting. I'll check it out. I'm looking into the Photomatix Plug-in for Lightroom. I wasn't aware there was such a plug in for lightroom. That would be cool if it works well. Nice photo you posted here Pingflood.

10-13-2008, 08:00 AM	#4
Jasvox Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,107	I second the kudos for Dynamic HDR. I have found it much easier to use than Photomatix and with the alignment tool, prevents any unwanted ghosting or blurred edges when shooting 3 to 5 bracketed shots instead of a bracketed shot from one photograph. I also find the result to be much more controllable and results to be more "real"with Dynamic. Lastly, the little watermark from Dynamic is so tiny and restricted to the very bottom corner, unlike the Photomatix watermark which is all over the image, with the trial version that is...it seems to be a better tool to "try before you buy" Here is one from a series I took a few days ago here in Athens. Jason

10-13-2008, 08:35 AM	#5
tybeck Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 452	Could you list the other programs that you tried? I'm interested in this as well. Right now I'm almost settled on FDRTools and wondered if that was among your testers.

10-13-2008, 03:41 PM	#6
raz-0 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Central NJ Posts: 470	I also like dynamic HDR. Best interface so far IMO. Mine seems to open my PEFs just fine.

10-13-2008, 04:18 PM	#7
pingflood Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Borås, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,169 Original Poster	Originally posted by raz-0 I also like dynamic HDR. Best interface so far IMO. Mine seems to open my PEFs just fine. Doh, you are right! I couldn't get it to work in the trial, but it does work fine here in the registered version... maybe something wasn't working right before because they're supposed to be identical. Originally posted by tybeck Could you list the other programs that you tried? I'm interested in this as well. Right now I'm almost settled on FDRTools and wondered if that was among your testers. Don't recall them all (removed most by now), but some were: Photomatix Dynamic Photo HDR Artizen HDR FDRtools (installer bombed out on Vista SP1 for me, so no real trial there) Picturenaut EasyHDR Essential HDR I'd like to hear how you like FDRtools; perhaps I shouldn't have given up on it so easily but DPHDR was running so well that I just was not inclined to make further effort to get past the crashing installer.

10-17-2008, 10:05 AM	#8
tybeck Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 452	Thanks for the list. I've tried Artizen HDR and Photomatrix as well, Photomatrix won hands down. Need to look at some of the others you mentioned. As for FDRTools I found it easier to produce more realistic HDR photos in it than in Photomatrix, but I could get the surreal look as well. The Pro version has a good manual alignment tool and I preferred the mixing tools to Photomatrix. FDRTools can be as automatic as Photmatrix on the image mixing end, but I felt I had more control between the three modes offered in the Pro version. Photomatrix has more options for the final rendering, but I found it more difficult to get a "real" looking image. I haven't bought FDRTools yet only because the USD is so weak against the Euro. Might be for the best until I need what Dynamic HDR can do.

10-17-2008, 11:33 AM	#9
Isaac314 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: London Photos: Gallery Posts: 417	I use photomatix and so far i havent felt the need to try any others. I just love the comprehensive control you get over every detail of the processing. Then i take it into photoshop and add the finishing touches. Here are some shots i took at the hospital in my town the other night. I Lied. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! Sunset Reaching on Flickr - Photo Sharing! Sunset over Loughborough on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

10-17-2008, 12:16 PM	#10
pingflood Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Borås, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,169 Original Poster	Isaac: those are definitely a little "over the top" but the results are outstanding. How many exposures did you use, and did you start from raw files?

10-17-2008, 02:06 PM	#11
mummy Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Salt Lake City Photos: Gallery Posts: 115	Thats is some great pictures you guys have. Can I use wireless remote to take continous pictures?

10-17-2008, 02:18 PM	#12
dave sz Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: carpentersville, IL Posts: 693	photomatix is...meh at best. I've been toying with CS3 HDR merge lately. Seems good...

10-17-2008, 02:42 PM	#13
Isaac314 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: London Photos: Gallery Posts: 417	Originally posted by pingflood Isaac: those are definitely a little "over the top" but the results are outstanding. How many exposures did you use, and did you start from raw files? What do you mean by over the top? I know as images they are a pretty insane but i tried not to overdo the "HDRness" (i.e. flat oversharpened images). Thanks for your opinion. I used 2 exposures, one underexposed by 2 clicks, and the other overexposed by 2 clicks (i dont know what the e.v. is of that... ) dave sz, I thought CS3 only merged HDR, but i dont think it can tone map? at least not very well. tone mapping is the processing which turns an HDR image into a detailed and full image, before that it is just a little flatter and with less clipping...

10-17-2008, 03:12 PM	#14
pingflood Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Borås, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,169 Original Poster	Originally posted by IsaacEastgate What do you mean by over the top? I know as images they are a pretty insane but i tried not to overdo the "HDRness" (i.e. flat oversharpened images). Thanks for your opinion. Over the top as in, I guess, hyper-realistic. It was a compliment! HDR is a really nice tool for conveying what you "saw" in your mind but the camera had a hard time capturing. Your stuff looks great. mummy: I think the Pentax Remote F does allow for using bracketing mode, but I am not 100% certain.

10-18-2008, 09:52 AM	#15
sharko Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: City of Angels Photos: Gallery Posts: 278	Dynamic Photo HDR looks like a great piece of software but too bad it's only available for PC...I do all my photo management/editing on a Mac.