Comments on: HDR Studio by Unifiedcolor Announces A Mac Version

By: Luke Gibson

Luke Gibson — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:39:18 +0000

After buying Photomatix Pro literally the day before this post, and not being happy with the muddiness of its processed images, I read the post, and decided to give the free trial of HDR Studio (for Mac) a try. I am so confused, even after reading their tutorial, and watching their tutorial videos, I still can’t get images to look anywhere near as good as those made with Photomatix (they are much more muddy).

In using 5-7 RAW images of a living room with a view of gardens, Photomatix gives a relatively good inital (processed) image, albeit muddy, while in HDR Studio, I couldn’t even get the initial (processed) image to show both inside and the view out the window (the view of outside was blown out), until after playing around with sliders in many different categories, I finally got both interior & exterior to show up, but now the interior is completely muddy, much worse than Photomatix. I almost feel that there seems to be a step missing (or I am missing a step): In Photomatix Pro, there are just 2 steps until you get the preliminary image (1. Generate HDF Image, then 2. Tone Mapping, then you have a decent (ie. I can see inside & outside) image to start working on. In HDR Studio, after the Merge to HDR step, you are presented with the image, and it feels like there should be a second step (the equivalent step to Photomatix’s “Tone Mapping” (automatic) step), but there isn’t, you are left to playing with all the sliders now.

Also, HDR Studio (for Mac) is extremely slow, compared to Photomatix Pro (Mac). It took 5-7 min. to process 6-7 RAW images (~12-14MB each). Have they slowed the free trial version down, or is there a bug in their new software, or…? (I have a 2GHz Duo MacBook, which fits their requirement.)

Larry,
Do you have some settings (particularly in the Brightness/Contrast, Highlight/Shadow, and WhiteBalance settings), that I maybe just completely off on (particularly for house interior images with views out the windows)?

Blayne,
Great blog, great images, and great testing of the 2 different software! Do you have any special settings (or any HDR Studios ” recipes”, as they call them) you can recommend

Thanks for any info, tips,
Luke

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:06:12 +0000

A member at realestatephotographers.net also made a blog post post about this topic. I may have to take a closer look at this software. The blog I’m mentioning can be found here: http://realestatephotographers.net/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=hdr-.html&Itemid=1

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:26:35 +0000

This looks like a great photo program. I’ll have to give it a try. Photoshop has been my standard equipment, but I can see a use for a simpler program at times.

By: Dylan Darling

Dylan Darling — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:19:57 +0000

I’ll have to give it a try. As a avid Photomatix user, I’m exited to see the difference in programs. If it makes more realistic images, it will be great for real estate photography.

By: larry

larry — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:13:20 +0000

@Blayne- Thanks for posting your examples. What I mean by “being easier to produce a more realistic looking image” is that I find that no matter what you do in HDR Studio, you cannot created the overcooked look that is so often seen with Photomatix created HDR images. Yes, as you nicely demonstrated you can produce realistic images in HDR Studio that look much like realistic images created with Photomatix but It looks to me like HDR Studio prevents you from creating that “overcooked” look. With Photomatix, it takes restrain on the part of the photographer running the sliders to get a realistic image.

By: Blayne Beacham

Blayne Beacham — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:19:06 +0000

If you want, you can read my blog. I did a huge post today all based on your post…

By: Tony Boros

Tony Boros — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:15:56 +0000

I have been using the “Exposure Fusion” mode in Photomatix Pro 3.2 exclusively when I need to composite an image. I find this mode makes much more realistic looking images without all the unwanted side effects of the HDR mode images. Does anyone know if HDR Studio has an “Exposure Fusion” mode like Photomatix?

By: Blayne Beacham

Blayne Beacham — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:52:41 +0000

I am excited about this. I have become so upset recently about all the ghosting effects of Photomatix. All I do is real estate photography, so the fuzziness of the images frustrates me. I am going to download the trial. I will be back to tell you what I think. I am so happy to have found your blog!