Photomatix...something better?

I have been trialling Photomatix for a month now and although I'm happy enough with the colour output and blending it does, my photos go soft almost like blur, when zoomed just a little.

Also when I go to open the photo into photoshop afterwards to do some more tweaks, it says the ICC profile is incompatible and if I continue on, it's opens okay but the sky is purple instead of blue and the colours are dull.

Is there another program out there that is just as easy to use but with better reults or am I just using it incorrectly?

I'd be happy to manually blend the images together using CS2 if I knew how. I know how to edit each photo individullay but not how to blend them into one layer so just the best from each image shows.

I hope someone is able to help...I have a series of images I want to enter in a local exhibition but without good HDR they are not worth entering. Then again, neither are well coloured but soft HDR's.
Hayley

Don't know if it's the best out there but I've just started using "Essential HDR". It got good reviews in Rangefinder magazine. Apparently the image processing it does is a bit different and was not created to compete directly with Photomatix. You can download a trail and test it out.....

Thanks Chris..I'll give that a try. Anyone else?

Hey All,

I'm going to invest a few dollars in an HDR program myself. I've downloaded and been fiddling with both photomatix and FDRtools. Not sure which I prefer - perhaps FDRtools as I like using curves - but it will probably come down to who has a valid coupon code. I'll have to look at essential HDR.

-Ed-

A quick edit: dynamic photo hdr by mediachance and essential HDR both also look like programs worth checking out.

ive had good luck with "Dynamic Photo HDR" its less expensive than PM and works great!

I will cast my vote for FDRTools, in terms of the control of the HDR construction process and the control of the tone mapping process and the LDR output. With that being said, I really should get off my ass and buy the app so I can stop posting images with the pink grid watermark from the trial version and start supporting the app's development. In my experience, Photomatix is a nice tool for playing with an image and achieving more painterly effects (that is not to say you can;t achieve more subtle and "real" looking output with it). FDRTools is a little more geeked out and requires some understanding of what you are doing with the image data, but once you get the hang of it, the control it affords you over the process is far greater than Photomatix, in my opinion.

Good luck,

Kirk

photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=645999&highli​ght=Dynamic+HDR

Take a look at this thread....

Also - here is a nice list of the available tools:

http://www.hdrlabs.com​/tools/links.html

Thanks muchly peoples! Lots to investigate now! Thanks for all the links etc. I appreciate it.
may download a trial of each that was suggested and give it a go for a few weeks an theb decide which to buy.
Rooey those pics on that link are great...although I thought the sunset was overdone...that's just personal taste I guess.
I was really happy with how Photomatix worked and it was certainly user friendly, but when I try so hard to get my pics sharp, I hate that it softens them.

If sharpness is your main concern with Photomatix, then I highly recommend you try FDR Tools. It's main strength, IMO, is how sharp and detailed tonemapped images are.

Thanks..I will try FDR first then.

I have always used Photomatix, but this week I bought Dynamic Photo HDR 4, which I have found much better and easier to use, and can get better results with little effort. (not saying Photomatix cannot give excellent results with effort). Everything about is well laidout, logical in use and very easy. Make sure you get (or try) latest version 4.1. I had trouble with portrait layout not rotating correctly, 2 days later ther was an upgrade available with the fix.