4 (5) options to generate HDR images

In my german blog i used a comparable title more than 2 years ago, so its time to take a look at the different tools again

Introduction

In the former article i compared  Photoshop,Photomatix and SNS-HDR to generate HDR images. In the mean time i reported quite a bit about HDR in this blog.

In the todays article we’ll talking about those tools which can be started from within Lightroom and additionally have a moderate price tag. Even though the combination [post id=472]Lightroom/Photoshop[/post] combination has a very low price tag i don’t use it for HDR iamges.

Tools

Besides Lightroom 6 which added a [post id=958]HDR[/post] function there are the following tools:

• Photomatix
• Photomatix 32-Bit Plugin
• SNS-HDR Plugin
• [post id=77]LR/Enfuse Plugin[/post]

Lightroom is free if you allready own it or better it doesn’t cause additional costs if you’re looking for HDR tools. SNS-HDR and the plugin for Lightroom are available for free. The LR/Enfuse Plugin is so called donationware, the developer expects a small donation. You donate a small amount of money for this combination which also usable for Stacking. Talking about prices Photomatix is the most expensive tool iwht a price tag of arround 70,– €.

Comparism

To compare the different tools i generated a HDR image from a exposure sequence of 3 and 5 pictures.

From left to right i used  SNS-HDR,Photomatix,Photomatix 32-Bit,Lightroom 6 and LR/Enfuse.

And now a comparism witha 5 picture sequence

You might notice the differences in colors and also in the shadows. But with a pretty neutral motif like the Abtei Brauweiler the differences in the results wihtout any further corrections are very narror, except the Photomatix 32 bit plugin which produces dark shadows. If you lighten up the shadows you probably risk noise in the resulting image.

Looking at the the sunset image the differences in color are very evident, but are correctable. My favorite still is SNS-HDR, because it generates pretty neutral looking HDR images without those weird colors you see sometimes in HDR iamges.

Conclusion

All tools generate almost neutral HDR images, the differences are mostly concerning the comfort in usage or to change options for generating the HDR image.

What do you think, what is your preference for genrating HDR? Drop a comment or ask questions. I’m looking forward to it.

ciao tuxoche