Choosing HDR Software

If you have been following this topic I have explained what high dynamic range is and how to take exposure bracketed photos. In this post I will talk about the software you need to process your exposure bracketed photos.

For starters it requires software that will take two or more exposure bracketed photos and combine them into a single photo that comes closer to displaying the full dynamic range of the scene than the camera could capture in a single image.

There are several commercial programs available as well as a few free ones. Probably the most popular commercial programs are Photomatix Pro, Aurora, Photoshop, and Lightroom CC. The one I use is Photomatix Pro. Another is HDR Projects 5 Professional. I have version 4 which I demonstrated at a Photo Enhancement SIG meeting.

Personally I prefer a program that displays preset images so you can choose the best image for the look you want and then tweak it further. Photomatix Pro, HDR Projects 4 Professional, and the free HDR Efex Pro have this feature. There may be others but I have not tried them. Once you have selected a preset you like you will probably need to tweak it. This can often be done in the HDR program or you can save it and then tweak it in your favorite photo editing software. Below are some examples of the many presets available in Photomatix Pro.

The first photo is the normal exposure right out of the camera. The second is what is called "natural" as it looks pretty much like a photo that came out of a camera; however, you can see more detail in the floor. In the original photo the floor is somewhat blown out. There are even black & white presets as seen in the last photo. You can click on them to enlarge them.

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I haven’t tried all the free programs but the ones I did try didn’t work that well or were difficult to use, but you might have better luck as I get impatient with programs I don’t think are intuitive. Also it has been several years and they may have improved. Here is a LINK to descriptions of the three best free HDR programs.

HDR Efex Pro is also free and part of the NIK free software bundle from Google. I’ve tried it and it works well. Of the free ones it is the one I would recommend plus you get several other nice photo enhancing tools as part of the bundle. I highly recommend you try it if you don’t already own other photo enhancing software. The downside is Google has no intention of updating it so eventually it may cease to function as operating systems change but until then it is a very good program and will help get you started in HDR.

Now you need to check out a few programs (many have trial versions) pick one and learn to use it. I believe it was Patrick Jewell who at a recent Photo Enhancement SIG meeting said, and I paraphrase, that there are many tools out there but we need to focus on just one and master it. Good advice.

Once you have chosen your program you need to learn how to use it. As most of you probably already know there is a ton of information at your fingertips on the internet. Use your favorite search engine and use search terms such as “Photomatix Pro tutorial” and then check out the websites in the resulting list. I personally prefer to watch videos and usually go to YouTube and search there. However, do not limit yourself to YouTube. If you add the word “video” after the search term above you will probably find more sources of videos not on YouTube.

In my experience working with HDR software is like working with any other photo editing software. You need to practice. Learning to use photo editing software is like learning to play a musical instrument or learning to play tennis. The more you practice the better you will get. That also goes for learning to use your camera and learning how to take great pictures.

Now that you have the basics of HDR it is time to go out and take some exposure bracketed photos and start creating your own HDR photos.