[Banded Drake]

Is Photo Matrix the " best " program for HDR ? Im hooked on the HDR photos that i have been looking at , and downloaded the trial version of Photo Matrix and really liked playing with some of my pics . And the results i got from raw were IMO great . But i dont want to spend the money on Matrix if there is one that is just as good or better/cheaper .



.......... Thanks ......... Shawn

[Toad]

Its the only one I have used, Drake. If there are others that offer free trials like PhotoMatrix - give them a whirl and see what you think. Better yet - post the links so that we can all try them out.

HDR is just one more tool in a photo manipulator's toolbox and not a magic bullet. On the other hand, it is great as a work reducer - as it can regain the detail in a RAW photo (or series of photos) that would take a long time to do the hard way in PhotoShop (even if you are good at it).

What I have discovered - if you are working from one RAW photo instead of a bracketed series (this is the mode I always work in), you are btter off usinbg a photo that is somewhat underexposed as the original - as it is simple to recreate underexposed detail - but very difficult to regain blown highlights.

[Irma]

Hi Shawn,

I've been working in my post processing in the past few weeks in order to improve my HDR images... In my pictures, the problem has been always the excessive noise they have after I pass three images with different exposures in photomatix...

What I did is to take a good tutorial about curves and work my pictures in Photoshop... and the results have been amazing to me... Here you have!!







This landscape lost a bit of detail since it was very soft so at the moment to sharp I did it in Neatimage so I would sharp and avoid the noise... but it came out ok... if you see the original...








These two pictures were taken with my FZ20 and they are jpg and very soft btw... the only good thing I have here is that nothing was over or under expossed so I could work with them...

I have also tried the same thing with a RAW file... I only work with exposure in RawShooter or PS and I try to cover all histogram... I don't work with brightnes, shadow or contrast... sometimes a bit with curves to get the colors covering completely the histogram and there I have my HDR... then I open it and work with curves... by channels and then with the whole image to get the contrast also the results are great... with less noise in the image here is the most recent picture I worked like this...




Here is the original


I think that having a raw file with good exposure or underexposure as Toad says is the best to work with your picture and give the colors and contras you like...

Hope this helps

Irma.

[Banded Drake]

Thanks Toad and Irma.

I am really getting a kick out of HDR ,and really want to learn it . I think the best thing for me to do is get the program ( Photo Matrix ) and playing and learning. Now that i understand histograms and how it will/can help me in HDR .

Yes Irma you did help me and thanks a lot . I really like your photos . I will be playing tonight and tomorrow . Thanks so much .

P. S ....... Glad to see you post something Irma , please keep the pics coming ....


......... Shawn