H D R

Does any one no of a good H D R software program
I tryed a few and they are to hard to use take up to much time
Let me know THANKS
Bill

Bill,

There are a number of options available. The two that immediately spring to mind, both of which I personally own, are:

Photomatrix (http://www.hdrsoft.com/), and

EasyHDR Pro (http://www.easyhdr.com/)

I started out with EasyHDR, and it does a very good job and, at £35 for a 'not for processional use' licence, is very good value for money.

I switched to Photomatrix as it seems to be better at things like auto alignment of images and the output is a little less noisy.

Both of these packaged are excellent and will produce good results. In both cases, the software and manuals are available to download to 'try before you buy' from the above sites. I would urge you to download either of these and invest the time in reading the documentation and experimenting.You will not get jaw dropping results first time or without some learning... I certainly didn't

At the end of the day, a software package that is very simple (largely automated) is not likely to provide the creative freedom or flexibility you will ultimately need.

If you really do want something less complex, you might try something like PhotoPlus X4 or X5 from serif (http://www.serif.com). At something like £60 (only £10 for X4!) this provides simple HDR merging and is a good all-around image editing package to boot. The downside is that it will be less likely to provide the HDR processed look that the more dedicated packages provide.

My adice... download Photomatrix, play with it and then buy when you are confident that it is what you are comfortable with.

Regards,

Dave

There is a guy who comes on one of the Pentax forums (at Steve's Digicams I think) who has his own one shot HDR program which does an excellent job and allows a degree of customisation. It's free but for PC only.

HDRtist for the MAC is good and free. There are other free programs too (for both Mac and PC).

Photomatix and the one I use (MAC only), Dynamic Photo (best alignment I could find) , are paid for programs but definitely worth the cash.

Bill,

It is also worth bearing in mind that 'pseudo HDR' looking images can be achieved using any image editing software that allows flexible manipulation of exposure, fill light, curves etc. If you are going to take this approach though, remember to shoot in RAW so that you have the maximum possible dynamic range to play with.

Regards,

Dave

This is a free program but it is a 'pseudo HDR' not full HDR program

From here

Topaz adjust is quite interesting and VERY easy to use, you can download a 30 day trial.

Andy

I find Photomatix straightforward


Simon