FDR Tools - Quick HDR workflow integration tip with LR

Tired of opening your RAWs in LR and then exporting them as TIFFs and opening them within a new Project in FDR Tools? Don't like simply opening a new Project in FDR Tools and letting FDR convert your RAW files?

You can integrate LR and FDR Tools by using LR's external editor settings. See screenshot attached. Now, you can open LR, import your RAWs, do your fancy non-tone-related edits, like Lens Correction, sharpening, noise reduction, etc. Then select the images that make up your HDR sequence and go to the Photo > Edit in ... and select FDR Tools (you can save an FDR Tools preset too in the Preferences dialog).

FDR Tools will open (if it is not already open) and, after some churning, FDR Tools will have set up for you a new project, with your RAW files converted as you specify from within LR - ready for tonemapping. Taaa daaa!

I also made a User Preset in LR that zeros all tone controls, creates a linear tone curve and sets the camera calibration to Camera Neutral. That way I can quickly override LR's defaults across my HDR sequence. Then, if I want to, I can do non-tone related corrections prior to doing the "Edit in..." step.

Cool - automation is fun!

Kirk

PS - FDR Tools is in beta with an updated version that speeds up rendering on screen, increases the fidelity of the preview to the final output and has a pretty nifty set of frequency-based controls for image contrast and smoothing that give even more control over the already powerful compressor tone mapping operator. You can download it for PC or Mac by joining the FDR Tools forum- link on the FDR Tools web page. Right now it is still only 32 bit, in beta.

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Photomatix will open RAW files. No need to convert to TIFF.

So will FDR tools and many other hdr apps. However none of them, including photomatix, do some of the corrections exclusive to LR, nor do they permit control of any aspect of the raw conversion process. See what I'm getting at? When was the last time Photomatix noise reduction or white balance (or chromatic aberration reduction) worked for you?

If you read the PM website, you will find that they recommend RAW conversion outside of PM - maybe this will change in the upcoming new version of PM. I think they even make a LR plug in to ease the workflow in this regard. My point here is the, if you use FDR Tools, you can accomplish this workflow integration with LR without a plug in, just using the built-in capabilities of both apps.

Kirk

I don't want to get into a fight with you. My workflow is to do the HDR conversion from the RAW files in Photomatix, then work on the resulting single TIFF in Lightroom. To each, his or her own.

That's cool - I am glad that workflow works for you. This thread was for sharing a tip for working with Lightroom and FDR Tools and trying to automate the process of working between those apps. I guess I was confused by your response.

Best,

Kirk