SNS-HDR Pro 1.4.22 is an alternative to Photomatix that is said to be the most halo-resistant of all HDR software. I downloaded and installed the demo version. I loaded it with a set of 5 images I took in the Blue Ridge Mountains at dawn. But first I used DxO Optics 8 to correct the lens aberration and convert from NEF to DNG. Using the default settings, the result from SNS-HDR was very clear and halo-free. I like the feature that asks if you want to save the image as 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF; Photomatrix saves as 16-bit, which is nice if you need it but for my work it just results in a larger file that I need to flatten before processing in Photoshop. (Note that I mean 8-bits or 16-bits per channel.) My first impression of SNS-HDR is positive, although it is a lot slower than Photomatix 5. The demo version places a huge watermark on all finished images.
Expose 3 is another HDR software package that I need to try.
Dynamic Photo HDR 5 is said to be less expensive than Photomatix, but it supposedly has a better RAW file converter. It does not include batch processing, however.
Many image processing software packages include a batch processing feature. This is very useful, for example, when performing lens corrections using DxO Optics Pro 8. You can quickly set it up to process entire folders of files, instructing it as to your preferred settings and output file format. Since it can take well over an hour to process 100 images, allowing batch processing means you can go about your business while the computer works away.
Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.
Philip Wheeler Photography
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