New HDR Software
HDR continues to be an important new technology for photographers. I find that folks at my workshops nearly always want to know more. I also find that a lot of photographers in my classes are disappointed when they cannot capture a scene with their camera, a scene that they can see perfectly well, a scene that challenges the camera’s capabilities. The way they can get around that problem is with HDR.
I have used a number of HDR software programs. Photomatix has become the defacto standard, yet I find it is not ideal for a lot of photographers. It is rather complex and a bit challenging to use well. In addition, it is too easy to get what one of my students described as “science fiction photos” than realistic images (which are possible with Photomatix, just not always as easy as the funky looking ones). For many photographers, especially nature photographers, realistic images are important. We want a scene to interpret what is really seen by our eyes, not something that only exists from computer manipulation.
I have liked LR/Enfuse, a fusing program that works with Lightroom, because it gives HDR-like results with a very natural look and it fits the Lightroom workflow. It does have its limitations because it is not a true HDR program.
I have been working with a new program, HDR Darkroom, including working with it in classes, and find it to be an excellent HDR program for most photographers. What I like about it is that it is very easy to use, it has a simple and direct interface (that still includes added controls as needed), plus it gives really nice looking results. I did a nature photo workshop in October at the Light Photographic Workshops in Los Osos, California, and showed the program. The workshop participants all agreed that they liked the simple interface and really natural looking results. I often hesitated to recommend Photomatix because I saw how photographers struggled with it and because so many photographers were disappointed in the “science fiction” tendency of its results. I have no hesitation recommending HDR Darkroom.
HDR Darkroom also includes an interesting RAW conversion capability that uses their tone-mapping algorithms. I have not tried it. It might be very useful for those difficult RAW files.
You can learn more about HDR Darkroom at www.hdrdarkroom.com.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
Hey Rob,
Have you tried hand blending your HDRs in Photoshop. I am finding that this technique is allowing me to achieve the best results. I still use Photomatix for my architecture work, but I am going to try HDR Darkroom now too. Hope you had a great holiday.
Jay
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 am
Great comment, Jay! Indeed, I rarely use an HDR file without some finishing in Photoshop or Lightroom. That will include adjusting color if it is off as well as tweaking midtones to make them look better.
Rob