If you want a natural look, I would recommend using either the pure exposure blending option, or the HDR tone-compressor exposure blending mode. These are actually quite complicated tools which one can not evaluate without spending a lot of time with them. Likewise, Tone Compressor mode provides global tone mapping corrections that produce much more realstic results than does Details Enhancer which does the fine-detail contrast enhancements that give it the HDR look. It's in fact incapable of producing any HDR look, because all it's doing is preventing clipping by pixel selection. It does make for a more dramatic photo but I'm after more natural.ĭid you use Photomatix Exposure/Blend or HDR Mode? Tone Mapping Details Enhancer, or Tone Compressor modes? Those different options produce drastically different results. It may not be as apparent here in my post but when I viewed the two images fullscreen and flipped back & forth between the two, I noticed the softness/dreamyness/halo in a number of areas. Anyways, I just wanted to post some examples from both programs for the benefit of others. I have not had an opportunity to work with a bracketed set of images yet but hope to do so after this weekend.
#PHOTOMATIX TRIAL SERIES#
The foreground seems more balanced exposure wise and the valley immediately across from me in the lower left doesn't look like a series of water spots on the lens like the Photomatix HDR version. As advertised, there are no halo effects in the image. I prefer the Essential HDR output MUCH more. Here's the result using their "Detail Revealer" dialog: Using Essential HDR, I tried to produce an image which was similar to the Photomatix output. I wasn't sure what other HDR programs to consider but after some digging, I decided to try Essential HDR. I did like the results although it had some of that "dreamy" (or halo effect) that is typical of Photomatix HDRs. Next is the result from Photomatix using Tone Mapping: First up, here's my "best" attempt with just curve adjustments to the RAW file: Unfortunately, I didn't have a proper sequence of bracketed photos to work with so I made three exposures from the source RAW file (-2, 0, +2). I decided to try it out so the question then becomes which program to use- Photomatix or ?. I've been hesitant about it since I feel that most HDR photos don't appear realistic. Anyways, some folks suggested HDR processing as an alternative.
#PHOTOMATIX TRIAL PRO#
ConclusionĪll in all, Photomatix Pro can assist passionate photographers merge bracketed shots into HDR images or just enhance their individual photos with a flurry of tweaks.For the benefit of others searching the forum, I thought I'd post this.Ībout a month ago, I posted some photos from a hike up into the snow where I had some real challenges due to a large dynamic range. You can change the tone compression, lighting, or detail contrast, the color brightness and saturation, shadows and many more.įurthermore, you can try out multiple filters and preview them before applying them onto the final version. Once you have completed the previous steps, you can move on to configuring the HDR parameters to your liking. You can finish off by specifying renaming and resizing patterns for your graphic files. You can choose the filters, adjust the contrast and sharpening values, set up the bracket selection information and the image alignment options.
You get the possibility to select several images and merge them to HDR according to the configuration you create. Furthermore, you can apply lens corrections specific to the camera model used to take the photo - by default, Photomatix Pro automatically identifies the correct device model, but you can also change it if you are not satisfied with its choice.
You can begin with reducing its noise and chromatic aberrations, while also adjusting the color space and white balance.
There are numerous source files supported by Photomatix Pro, namely JPEG, TIF, HDR, EXR, PSD, CRW, NEF, RAF, ORF, DCR, RAW, DNG and others. If you choose the first option, you can simply drag and drop it onto the main window or manually browse to its location. You can process not only a single graphic file, but also a series of bracketed shots to merge into one high-quality HDR photograph.
#PHOTOMATIX TRIAL SOFTWARE#
Photomatix Pro is a specialized software solution that is meant to enhance your photos so as to reflect exactly the amazing landscape you captured.