"Official Photomatix Thread"

X-images wrote in post #16521136
Bellagio, Lake Como-10 by Adrian Rumney, on Flickr

Not bad. I'm guessing this was done with the new version 5?

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16521175
Not bad. I'm guessing this was done with the new version 5?

Very nice. There's a new version?

A few from my cycle ride yesterday:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …mcgillicuddy/11​343518064/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …mcgillicuddy/11​343516924/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …mcgillicuddy/11​343515254/

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16521175
Not bad. I'm guessing this was done with the new version 5?

Cheers. No, still using version 3.

X-images wrote in post #16525066
Cheers. No, still using version 3.

Thanks for the reply. Interesting. None of the inherent halos or over-saturated color ranges. Either you apparently learned how to tame it or you fixed it post photomatix. Nice job.

Photomatix is not inherently halo-producing, but it certainly will produce halos if abused. I think most folks who produce "HDR" that is haloed and over saturated use Photomatix with reckless abandon and either like the look or don't know how to tone it down - the sliders in PM are interrelated, so getting to know how they all affect each other goes a long way to producing natural compression.

kirk

kirkt wrote in post #16526546
Photomatix is not inherently halo-producing, but it certainly will produce halos if abused. I think most folks who produce "HDR" that is haloed and over saturated use Photomatix with reckless abandon and either like the look or don't know how to tone it down - the sliders in PM are interrelated, so getting to know how they all affect each other goes a long way to producing natural compression.

kirk

Incorrect.

I have seen many examples where the goal was to produce a realistic image (staying away from the overly-tonemapped look) that have had problems with photomatix halos - especially is high contrast areas such as where a dark tree touches a bright sky.

Edit: This is from Photomatix's own FAQ (hdrsoft.com) where they provide a solution to halos being produced even when trying to achieve natural looking images:

"Increasing the value of the Smooth Highlights setting (under the "More Options" section) is useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds. The other adjustments that may help are lowering the Strength and/or increasing the value of the Lighting Adjustments setting.

An easier way to avoid halo artifacts is to either use the Tone Compressor method for tone mapping your image, or to process your bracketed photos with Exposure Fusion using the 'Fusion/Natural' method. The latter is particularly recommended if you are looking for natural-looking results."

There would be no need to provide solutions for problems that did not exist.

but I will say that the new version 5, at least on the limited number of images I have processed so far, seems to have corrected (or at least greatly improved) on the problem.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16528700
Incorrect.

I
but I will say that the new version 5, at least on the limited number of images I have processed so far, seems to have corrected (or at least greatly improved) on the problem.

Is that the paid full version?

roseyposey wrote in post #16529069
Is that the paid full version?

Not quite sure what you mean. AFAIK, the trial is fully functional, just time-limited.

Can't remember what I previously wrote, but yes - v5 is greatly improved.

Some of their old demons such as the way it used to oversaturate certain color groups, the halos, adding noise to shadow areas, and over-sharpening have been improved.

Long story short: I quit using photomatix for years, but I ran across a 5-exposure project the other day that Nik just could not handle, no matter what was tweaked. However, photomatix did. So Nik is still my preferred program, but Photomatix has improved it's favor with me and has now earned a place on the "oh what the hell, give it a try in photomatix to see what it looks like" list.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16528700
Incorrect.

I have seen many examples where the goal was to produce a realistic image (staying away from the overly-tonemapped look) that have had problems with photomatix halos - especially is high contrast areas such as where a dark tree touches a bright sky.

Edit: This is from Photomatix's own FAQ (hdrsoft.com) where they provide a solution to halos being produced even when trying to achieve natural looking images:

"Increasing the value of the Smooth Highlights setting (under the "More Options" section) is useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds. The other adjustments that may help are lowering the Strength and/or increasing the value of the Lighting Adjustments setting.

An easier way to avoid halo artifacts is to either use the Tone Compressor method for tone mapping your image, or to process your bracketed photos with Exposure Fusion using the 'Fusion/Natural' method. The latter is particularly recommended if you are looking for natural-looking results."

There would be no need to provide solutions for problems that did not exist.

but I will say that the new version 5, at least on the limited number of images I have processed so far, seems to have corrected (or at least greatly improved) on the problem.

Notice the recommendation to use the "Natural" setting to get rid of halos. Sounds self explanatory to me.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16529976
Not quite sure what you mean. AFAIK, the trial is fully functional, just time-limited.

The trial version of v5 puts a logo on the image:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …mcgillicuddy/11​395873744/

Try this one, it's the one most people do not use - mostly because it is the first slider:

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #16528700
Incorrect.

...

Edit: This is from Photomatix's own FAQ (hdrsoft.com) where they provide a solution to halos being produced even when trying to achieve natural looking images:

"...lowering the Strength

"

There would be no need to provide solutions for problems that did not exist.

From the HDRSoft website:

"The upgrade to Photomatix Pro 5 is free of charge for customers who purchased a license of Photomatix Pro version 4 from the HDRsoft.com website.

If you bought a license before Photomatix Pro 4.0 was released, i.e. before October 2010, you can upgrade to Photomatix Pro 5 for US$29.

If you bought on Amazon the Photomatix Pro 4 software box sold by HDRsoft or Amazon, the upgrade to version 5 is free, and you do not need a new license key (Note: this does not apply to Photomatix Pro boxes sold by other resellers than HDRsoft or Amazon)."

Pretty cool, I'm going to try the free upgrade tonight.

http://www.hdrsoft.com​/support/upgrade5.html