Best HDR Software?

[The_Arsonist]

photomatix is mostly crap IMO or possibly too often abused causing heavily over cooked images

LR enfuse is an awesome awesome plugin for inside lightroom
there are some standalone enfuse programs

enfuse is and open source program and is more like an advanced exposure blending algorythm rather than the pure "HDR" that creates a radiance file and then applies false tone mapping to the image

No god awefull halos and cartoon like colour shifts, and it produces much more natural images.

although having said that photomatix can work quite well with night scenes if done right

I've been meaning to try a hybrid combination between an LR enfuse with a photomatix processed image blended into certain areas I think this could work out quite nicely

i've attached an enfuse sample

Thanks for the tip. Enfuse works great when I just want to quickly combine exposures to bring out the shadows and bring down the highlights

[wickidwombat]

I'm interested to see if LR4 can open the 32bit radiance tiff files though that will be very cool

Yes it can and you get + and - 10 stops in the exposure slider. I import all my images to Lightroom and then select the frames I want to HDR in PS, then just go Phot-Edit In-Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop, no need for Bridge, it will then export the finished 32bit file back into the same folder as all the originals.

The PS 32 bit method is beautiful, if you have the time to do multiple exposures it blows a D800 out of the water, the DR is staggering. But the file sizes are around 270mb for a 21MP 32bit image and they take some time to process, well worth it for detailed landscapes etc to print big, but Enfuse works plenty well enough for real estate type work. I find I tend to use Enfuse for interiors and Photomatix for exteriors, the PS 32bit HDR is saved for best work.

If you like I will post comparisons between normal exposure, Enfuse, Photomatix and PS 32bit, but they will have to be late tomorrow or Monday.

that would be awesome thanks!
and yeah i cant see anything being faster workflow than enfuse for interiors or the industrial stuff i do but for my personal travel and landscape stuff this 32bit PS and LR combo looks like its gonna be the winner!

this has become a really great sharing info thread maybe it should get stickied in the HDR section?

[wickidwombat]

awesome thanks, that PS32bit HDR really is a clear winner
especially for top shelf work,

[blaydese]

I can't belive it, after just got done
bashing Photomatix PRO, I like it the
best, sorry, but I do.  When I was
looking at the pictures, I had not read
your post yet, and thought, meh, I like
the second one.  Then when I read your
post,.. I was like, WHHHAAAAA it's a
Photomatix processed one.  HUH/wow!   

Thanks for the compare, that helps a lot,
I guess it is the photographer, the LENS and
less about what HDR program you use.

Peace!

[gkaefer]

oloneo photo engine - easy to use. preset can be used for batches. antighost only works good if images are not misaligned. denoising option genious (stacking multiple images per position with identical focal/wb/aperture/shutterspeed - but images dimensions must be equal in w/h); also interesting relightning feature.

photomatix pro - many options - fusing and/or tonemapping. antighost good in auto mode, best with manually. batching not so fast like enfusegui.

EnfuseGUI (free/donationware) - for mac and PC - batch processing easy - some try and error needed until best fitting options are found - but than very fast processing huge amount of images. Antighost missing, images should be alligned perfectly.

links:
www.oloneo.com
www.hdrsoft.com
software.bergmark.com/enfuseGUI

[dilbert]

Hmm, if you want to do HDR, the D800 and LR is a pretty hard combination to beat *and* you can get away with taking 1 picture most of the time, 2 if you're unlucky.

[Rockets95]

Just wondering which HDR Software you like to use the most? For me its Photomatix 4!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josh_leff/8025373317/#in/set-72157631600291446/

If you're interested in HDR, Canon's DPP software that comes with their cameras now includes an HDR feature. They added this feature 8 to 10 months ago, so you may need to update the software from Canon's website. The benefit to the HDR feature in DPP is it's free.  They also added a compositing feature too for blending images.

I've dabbled with DPP, Photomatix, and Nik HDR, and I don't have a clear favorite at this point.

[rmt3rd]

I use Photomatix Pro 4.  I don't use it to make unrealistic photos.  I really like the B&W presets it has, then fine tune back in Lightroom. 

IMO, the photo used above isn't a good HDR candidate to compare processes.  In Lightroom, you could probably use the Highlight and Shadow slider to get the same end result as the photos shown.  If you took a photo will a dimly lit room, lit by lampshades, that may have been a better candidate to work with.

[wickidwombat]

yep my biggest problem with photomatix is its wierd colour shifts which would take forever to try and fix in PS
even its fusion module (which is what you used there?) has colour shifts, enfuse doesnt wierd out the colours non by the look of things the 32bit HDR method

[jonathan7007]

Add a vote for LR-Enfuse, (Enfuse integrated into Lightroom as a menu item) especially for a quick workflow through a shoot full of interiors. I also find that there are few if any color shifts. You can vary the exposure spread to better represent one or another part of the range. Good tripod and shutter release care necessary to preserve alignment. For these setups I use my old aluminum 5-section many-pound Gitzo tele-Studex that must weigh 20+ pounds! I too use this with a 17TSE-often showing lots of windows like the shots above. Love it. Will look for an example to post.

I always wonder about how to get and use the command-line version of Enfuse code. Just curious. Sounds like it would slow down editing a shoot, though.

I tried Photomatix and Nik EfexPro. Liked Efex better, as it has localized control available and there were other ways tones and edges seemed better. I hope the sale of Nik will not stop development.

I loved the suggestion early in this thread to move the HDR file into Lightroom after combination. Will try.

jonathan7007

[scrappydog]

Add another vote for Enfuse.  I have been testing HDR software this weekend (i.e., NIK, Photomatix) and gave Enfuse a try via the command line executable.  Best results of the bunch.  Very natural look.  Not a good solution if you are into heavily processed HDR shots.

[Rienzphotoz]

photomatix is mostly crap IMO or possibly too often abused causing heavily over cooked images

LR enfuse is an awesome awesome plugin for inside lightroom
there are some standalone enfuse programs

enfuse is and open source program and is more like an advanced exposure blending algorythm rather than the pure "HDR" that creates a radiance file and then applies false tone mapping to the image

No god awefull halos and cartoon like colour shifts, and it produces much more natural images.

although having said that photomatix can work quite well with night scenes if done right

I've been meaning to try a hybrid combination between an LR enfuse with a photomatix processed image blended into certain areas I think this could work out quite nicely

i've attached an enfuse sample

AWSOME pic ... will have to give LR enfuse a try ... thanks for sharing

[mycanonphotos]

photomatix is mostly crap IMO or possibly too often abused causing heavily over cooked images

LR enfuse is an awesome awesome plugin for inside lightroom
there are some standalone enfuse programs

enfuse is and open source program and is more like an advanced exposure blending algorythm rather than the pure "HDR" that creates a radiance file and then applies false tone mapping to the image

No god awefull halos and cartoon like colour shifts, and it produces much more natural images.

although having said that photomatix can work quite well with night scenes if done right

I've been meaning to try a hybrid combination between an LR enfuse with a photomatix processed image blended into certain areas I think this could work out quite nicely

i've attached an enfuse sample

Thanks for the tip. Enfuse works great when I just want to quickly combine exposures to bring out the shadows and bring down the highlights

There are a lots of programs out there now made for doing HDR.  None of them are CRAP in my opinion... what matters most is what you are trying to accomplish with that program for YOUR photographs and getting the output you so desire... Some are better for different reasons and will process data differently. One of the things that it comes down to is garbage in garbage out...

[anthonyd]

LuminanceHDR http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/ is an open source software (which means free as in "free speech" and free as in "free beer") that works pretty well.  It has some quirks and it might be a little confusing when you first start, but that's what I've used for all my HDR pictures and it has served me well whether I went for a cartoonish look, or realistic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29321561@N06/sets/72157606594716451/with/2738399193/