Not a review, but a thank you to a company that’s doing it right: HDRSoft. Instead of pulling a trick from the pockets of a Microsoft. or an Apple, or Adobe, they’re effectively giving away upgrades to Photomatix Pro 4. Bought Photomatix 3? 4 is yours. I bought Photomatix 2, but I still received the upgrade – courtesy of purchasing after March 2007.
In this day & age, it’s refreshing to see a company that rewards loyalty and doesn’t overdo it in the charging department.
I noted a short while ago that I was pretty enamored with Photoshop’s new “Merge to HDR Pro” feature in CS5. I need to reiterate: when it comes to merging the images, there’s just no comparison: CS5 merges far better.
However, after a few days of heavy use I’m really noticing that it’s rendering is… well, passable. But Photomatix kicks CS5′s but all over town.
So the bottom line: for HDR shots that don’t align too well, CS5 is probably better. But your tone mapping will be the poorer for it, unless you can get it into Photomatix.
I’ve wasted far too much time trying to get the images to move over with quality between the two; for now, I post this. In a day or two, maybe more.
Underwater HDR, Redux
Following up on the thoughts on this post, witness the image to right. Now, I’m not claiming it’s the best image, nor am I trying to even state that I’m done with post-processing. I am, but only because I’ve decided I’m not happy with the composition.
But I am happy with the results of my tests. In this case, I now know: when doing handheld bracketed shots, Photoshop CS5′s “Merge to HDR Pro” function is incredibly more useful than Photomatix 3.2. It’s not just the ghosting, although that sure cleaned up a lot.
No, it’s how easily CS5 finds like components and merges them together. Seriously, it’s just incredible: this is a three-frame HDR, in JPG. Compare the sharpness (not the contrast) and the merging to this: Click to continue »