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A Little More HDR and Other Various Things

February 6, 2008 by 8 Comments

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Mike Palmer of Mike Palmer Photography sent me an email the other day to tell me about another HDR product that offers a nice alternative to Photomatix Pro.  Made by MediaChance, Dynamic Photo HDR is a Windows-only software application that creates HDR images from RAW and JPG images and then allows easy tonemapping in a fast, easy, straightforward way.  There are also some nifty presets for different effects such as Eye Catching, Ultra-Contrast, Photographic, Human Eye, and more.  For more information and access to download a trial or full version, click here. You can also check out the review over at PopPhoto.

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I also ran across this software being discussed in a  DPChallenge forum called Imaging Luminary.  The software is currently in beta version and is only available for Windows (a Mac version is in development).  They have invented two revolutionary HDR Tone Mapping algorithms, Detail Revealer and Fast Tone Balancer.  If you would like to be part of the beta-testing process, drop them an email and they will send you a link to download the application.  Also go check out the sample page which shows the difference between tonemapping with their software as compared to Photomatix.  This software shows real promise.  For more info, click here.

The Moment It Clicks

And finally, one from the blogoshpere.  If you are a reader of Scott Kelby’s blog, Photoshop Insider, you have seen his recent ravings about the new Joe McNally book, The Moment it Clicks.  Scott linked over to a review of the book at the Strobist.  At the end of the review was an announcment about Joe McNally’s foray into blogging with the launch of his new blog page over at JoeMcNally.com.  Joe is currently teaching a seminar in the Phillipines (which explains why he wasn’t at PMA) so it might be a little while before there is a new posting but I am looking forward to every new post he makes.  Joe is a ROCK STAR!  You can find his new blog here.

Related posts:

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  3. Photoshop vs. Photomatix Pro
  4. Things Are Tough All Over
  5. Things You Might Have Missed
Filed Under: HDR, Image Processing Tagged With: , ,
  • Roger Tregelles

    Jeff – Thanks for all the great HDR stuff over the past few posts. Just a quick (newbie) question. Is the built in HDR capacity in CS3 too lame to get the job done so that you need to purchase a 3rd party add in? I really want to create stunning HDR images but was hoping to be able to do so in CS3 without ponying up more money. Let me know and thanks again for all of the great stuff at your website. :-)

  • Roger Tregelles

    I just found this article at Layers Magazine website. It looks interesting. http://www.layersmagazine.com/hdr-another-way.html

    Roger :-)

  • http://www.hdrjapan.com/ hdr

    HDR is pretty easy to do, why do people think they need books and magazines to show them how?

  • http://www.revellphotography.com jeff

    hdr,
    Like Photoshop, HDR imaging is easy when you know how. Once you do know how, you can tend to forget that you had to learn it somewhere. Besides, someone has to keep Amazon’s profits up. :-)

  • Roger Tregelles

    Jeff – You mentioned that “HDR imaging is easy when you know how. Once you do know how, you can tend to forget that you had to learn it somewhere”. Are you referring to doing it straight out of Photoshop or using add-ins like the ones you refer to in your two part series. Sorry if I sound stupid, just looking to understand what you’re saying and figure out what course of action I will pursue for HDR work going forward. I did like the article at Layers Magazine. Thanks for your help as always. :-)

  • http://www.revellphotography.com jeff

    It’s no problem at all Roger. There are many different flavors of HDR software and solutions that you can use for your processing and finding the one that you like the best is not always an easy proposition. I am always looking for the “next thing” because there is a chance that it will make my workflow faster and give me better results. You can certainly get similar HDR results from Photoshop but all of the tonemapping will have to be done manually through trial and error. Also, that technique you saw in Layers is called double processing. Scott actually uses it in his 7-Point System to remedy those exposures that have brighter skies and darker foregrounds and you need to control both of them. I use it all of the time. I wouldn’t want to confuse it with HDR though. It is similar to making an HDR type image from one exposure by taking advantage of the exposure latitude of a single image (which is actually fairly broad). The true HDR is using three or more images that offer an exposure latitude of 7+ stops. There is more latitude in a true HDR but here’s the thing, who cares if it looks good. Check tomorrow for some comparisons of Photomatix vs. Photoshop HDR processing.

  • Roger Tregelles

    Jeff – Thanks so much for the great reply and detailed explanation. I guess I’ll need to try doing some of these on my own using the methods Scott and Corey talk about and then compare that to the results from an HDR add in using three or more images. You mention this allows up to 7+ stops of exposure. Again, this is going to sound like newbie question, but typically I set the F-Stop for my desired depth of field and then control my exposure more by shutter speed. That being said, I assume I would go from a shutter speed that gives my good highlights exposure (sky) to a shutter speed that gives me good exposure for my foregorund and shadows. Is that how you shoot for your HDR work? Let me know, thanks. I’m really looking forward to your comparison tomorrow too. :-)

  • http://www.imagingluminary.com Bo Yuan from Imaging Luminary

    Jeff, Thanks very much for mentioning our software and company Imaging Luminary in your blog. It’s been fun both developing the software and interacting with our early testers.

    The code name for this software is “wukong”. (explained in here: http://www.imagingluminary.com/product.htm ) Today we are in early test stage and we still do not have a product name chosen for this software. For people who are interested in joining the test, we still have 12 seats left, first come first serve.

    All you need to do is registering at the support forum: http://imagingluminary.org/support/index.php/topic,50.0.html
    The download url is being published in there when we update it.