Natural Looking HDR

David - In my opinion, there are better choices, for Mac and PC users.

kirk

I don't want to get in the middle of the aurora thing. But Photomatix pro always seems to work and has the utmost flexibility for me.

^^ And, ultimately, whatever works the best for the user is the usually the best app there is!

kirk

kirkt wrote in post #18148089
David - In my opinion, there are better choices, for Mac and PC users.

kirk

What is your preferred app for PCs? Would really appreciate your thoughts there.

I Have two i use on my pc, Photomatix Pro and SNSHDR PRO 2 And rate the latter for very natural results although it can sometimes struggle with deghosting ( Not all of the time) but this is not a problem deghost in photomatix and save as a radiance file then chuck that into SNS.

David Arbogast wrote in post #18148155
What is your preferred app for PCs? Would really appreciate your thoughts there.

I am a mac user - that being said, i have Windows 10 running on my machine under Parallels and I have tried the trial version of SNS, which seems to yield predictably good results, in terms of toning the image, and offers a wealth of control over the final image.

I recently tried Franzis HDR Projects 4 Professional, which is both a PC and Mac application, and found it to be utterly confusing at first, but lightyears ahead of most products when it comes to the amount of control over the merging and toning process. This, to me, is a really important part of the HDR workflow, and access to the merging algorithm is rarely exposed to the user in such great detail and with such control. It really takes a while to find your way around the application, even after reading the manual and watching the cursory tutorial videos; however, once you get the idea, you will start to realize the potential.

I usually have a few different datasets that I use to test an application - each exposure bracket tests certain aspects of the process, including merging, tonal range compression, deghosting and alignment, color reproduction, local contrast, etc. Some do well in many things and fall short in others, some applications simply cannot cope with the datasets at all and offer little control exposed to the user to squeeze out better results, etc.

Photomatix is always a good fall back, especially for batch processing (particularly for 360° panoramic images, which require special tone mapping). I look in on it every once a while and it does not appear to have undergone any recent development (at least as of about 6 months or so ago).

HDRExpose is also a pretty good choice for most HDR work, and its batching capabilities have been developed pretty well over the last couple of iterations of the software.

My applications of choice are, in no specific order: PS, Franzis HDR Projects, LumariverHDR, HDR Expose (or the photoshop plug-in Float32).

This in addition to luminance masking type techniques works for me. Unfortunately, LumariverHDR is mac only. I say unfortunately because its merging and deghosting works perfectly 99% of the time and in addition to the tone mapping controls offered in the application, one can also export a 32bit DNG (or a standard DNG) as output - essentially creating a super raw file.

Another recent development that has made things interesting is the DxO One camera - it attaches to the lightning port of an iPhone and shoots JPEG, raw and "SuperRaw" - the SuperRaw image is a combination of 4 images acquired simultaneously, leading to a greater S/N ratio and more DR in a raw image. DxO Optics Pro processes these images natively and you get superior noise reduction and better exposure and color in the shadows as a result.

Hope this helps. The PC users that follow this thread can probably be more helpful, especially as it relates to the PC-only tools (SNS, Oloneo, Machinery, etc.).

kirk

EDIT: I forgot to mention Enfuse as well.

kirkt wrote in post #18148235
I am a mac user - that being said, i have Windows 10 running on my machine under Parallels and I have tried the trial version of SNS, which seems to yield predictably good results, in terms of toning the image, and offers a wealth of control over the final image.

I recently tried Franzis HDR Projects 4 Professional, which is both a PC and Mac application, and found it to be utterly confusing at first, but lightyears ahead of most products when it comes to the amount of control over the merging and toning process. This, to me, is a really important part of the HDR workflow, and access to the merging algorithm is rarely exposed to the user in such great detail and with such control. It really takes a while to find your way around the application, even after reading the manual and watching the cursory tutorial videos; however, once you get the idea, you will start to realize the potential.

I usually have a few different datasets that I use to test an application - each exposure bracket tests certain aspects of the process, including merging, tonal range compression, deghosting and alignment, color reproduction, local contrast, etc. Some do well in many things and fall short in others, some applications simply cannot cope with the datasets at all and offer little control exposed to the user to squeeze out better results, etc.

Photomatix is always a good fall back, especially for batch processing (particularly for 360° panoramic images, which require special tone mapping). I look in on it every once a while and it does not appear to have undergone any recent development (at least as of about 6 months or so ago).

HDRExpose is also a pretty good choice for most HDR work, and its batching capabilities have been developed pretty well over the last couple of iterations of the software.

My applications of choice are, in no specific order: PS, Franzis HDR Projects, LumariverHDR, HDR Expose (or the photoshop plug-in Float32).

This in addition to luminance masking type techniques works for me. Unfortunately, LumariverHDR is mac only. I say unfortunately because its merging and deghosting works perfectly 99% of the time and in addition to the tone mapping controls offered in the application, one can also export a 32bit DNG (or a standard DNG) as output - essentially creating a super raw file.

Another recent development that has made things interesting is the DxO One camera - it attaches to the lightning port of an iPhone and shoots JPEG, raw and "SuperRaw" - the SuperRaw image is a combination of 4 images acquired simultaneously, leading to a greater S/N ratio and more DR in a raw image. DxO Optics Pro processes these images natively and you get superior noise reduction and better exposure and color in the shadows as a result.

Hope this helps. The PC users that follow this thread can probably be more helpful, especially as it relates to the PC-only tools (SNS, Oloneo, Machinery, etc.).

kirk

Thanks Kirk! I have a bunch of HDR apps...I was just interested in hearing about your personal preferences.

David Arbogast wrote in post #18148240
Thanks Kirk! I have a bunch of HDR apps...I was just interested in hearing about your personal preferences.

I'd be interested to hear about your experience as well, when you have a moment to share it.

kirk

Had the beach to my self, The joys of getting out nice and early :afro:
Arricife - Lanzarote.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/MLQA​2j

Sun Up, Sun Day, Sun Down:

UK_MARK wrote in post #18150087
Had the beach to my self, The joys of getting out nice and early :afro:
Arricife - Lanzarote.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/MLQA​2j Lifeguard Tower by Mark, on Flickr

This is really calming

It's sort of quiet in the thread so I figured I would post another shot of my office desk and window!

I recently traded in my Canon 5DIII and got the 5DIV. The two cameras are worlds apart for what I enjoy imaging. For HDR, you can AEB up to 7 shots and up to +/- 6EV!

The sensor is nicely updated and the noise is noticeably lower and more pleasing in the shadows. There are a whole host of changes in this camera, compared to the 5DIII - Canon thought about the 5D evolution with this version. The Ambient Auto WB is also a really nice addition to the WB evaluation of scene light. In this image, there is a nice balance between the color rendering of the outdoor sunlight, the indoor ambient bounce light (the walls are off-white) and the computer display. On the 5DIII, the computer display would have been rendered with a garish magenta cast when AUTO managed to shift toward daylight WB of the sunlight outside.

Just starting to play around with the raw files.

This image is made from an HDR merge in ACR to DNG, with some finishing in PS. Not the highest DR scene, but the deep shadows are noise free.

Pretty nifty.

kirk

It is quiet isn't it, I'll muss things up a bit, shall I? ...