Unique Photomatix question... any insight?

[evizzle]

Mods, please let me know if this is encouraging some sort of violation of terms, and delete if necessary. I avoided asking the question in the title so it would not really show up under some sort of search if one wanted to violate the terms of use of Photomatix and its generous demo.

So, I went out and took a good chunk of bracketed pictures, raced home and plugged my card into my reader, picked out the best 3 and put them into the Photomatix demo. I had never used HDR methods before, and I really really liked the results I got. I saved the image to my desktop, and then went on my way.

A couple days later, I went out to shoot again, and formatted my card without dumping the previous shots onto my computer :(. The originals were lost!

So, I purchased Photomatix Pro as I really like its ease of use and output quality, figuring I could open up that shot and the watermark would be removed. To my dismay, the watermark was still there. I am now stuck with a shot I really like and a nasty watermark even though I paid for the software.

Does anyone know of a way for me to remove the watermark with only having the watermarked image, the purchased software, but no originals?

(I just thought about using a recovery program, is that a realistic possibility to recover the images from the card?)

Thanks everyone, I learned my mistake but am now quite sad as I really like the results...

[roman_t]

you can recover formatted files - some of them. i used Active File Recovery 7.1 once. it saved me session and some very old shots too. if you have photomatix license call them to fix watermark.

[bsmotril]

The watermark is going to rasterized into the orignal image when you saved it.. Photomatix can't take it out after the fact it was saved as a JPEG or HDRI.

[carpenter]

if you took bracketed shots I assume then of static subjects.. you can't go reshoot these?

[evizzle]

if you took bracketed shots I assume then of static subjects.. you can't go reshoot these?

bracketed shots yes, but not sure I could recreate it...


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3007/2671744647_235b2c9848.jpg

[PixelMagic]

So did you attempt to recover the original files from your card?

[oldvultureface]

If you have the original Photomatix processed image, the watermark can be removed by -Automate-Single File Conversion...-Remove Photomatix watermark.

[evizzle]

If you have the original Photomatix processed image, the watermark can be removed by -Automate-Single File Conversion...-Remove Photomatix watermark.

Thank you so much 'oldvultureface'!!! That was exactly what I was looking for! I was able to remove the watermark.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3053/2675063488_21472e4b1c_b.jpg

[oldvultureface]

You are welcome. I had the same concern a few days ago after registering my trial version. Found the answer on hdrsoft.com FAQ. After viewing your picture, I understand why you wanted to remove the watermark.

[bsheasby]

Awesome picture - a great example of nice, natural-looking use of HDR!

[evizzle]

thanks guys, this is definately my favorite pic in my short time with an slr. I am sitting in the airport waiting to fly to NYC right now. Excited for a weekend of picture taking!