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Author Topic: Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3  (Read 2161 times)

rollsman44

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Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
« on: February 22, 2017, 03:34:19 pm »

Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
Trying to find a User Friendly HDR program and one that is User Friendly and easy to create Fantastic HDR images
Thanks
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2017, 04:51:14 am »

Any particular reason you've selected those two? I have found Photomatix to be very good, particularly when I did the tone mapping in Lightroom. LR itself does a reasonable job, too.

Jeremy
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rollsman44

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Re: Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2017, 08:07:33 am »

recommended by another member of a different forum.  Thank you I will check that one out
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kirkt

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Re: Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2017, 08:43:53 am »

I have not trialed the most recent version of AuroraHDR or whatever it is being called now, but the first two or three iterations were not very good at coping with true HDR scenes.  The tone mapping operators in particular produced terrible results that were not undoable with the set of controls in the interface.  There were several issues I had with the tone, color and rendering of transitions, particularly at edges with fine detail or edges that were out of focus due to bokeh effects.  Maybe this has changed with the most recent iteration.  You will notice from the marketing materials that most images that are show as examples come from a sequence of three JPEGs or something similar.  This is probably a sign that the scene tonal range that Aurora can accept as a typical working range is not super big.

HDR Express is a slimmed-down version of HDR Expose and can cope with a wide dynamic range, typically.  If I had to suggest one application over the other, I would suggest HDR Express.  I use HDR Expose, but I am assuming that HDR Express still shares the basic merge and tone mapping controls with HDR Expose.

Give both of them a try with a few sets of HDR data that test various features and weak points of HDR applications.  Then you can compare apples to apples in terms of ease of use, quality of merger and color and tone reproduction of the LDR output.

kirk
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D White

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Re: Aurora 2017 or HDR Express 3
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2017, 11:20:17 pm »

Or perhaps it is time to take a serious look at combining images through use of luminosity masks. I blew much time and aggravation trying to find the HDR holy grail, in the end I do not think it exists on a consistent basis. The reasons it fails are many.

The cost can range anywhere from free to 40-50 bucks for an extension plug-in for PS that semi automates some of the process while providing all the operator input you want.

Good hunting.
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Dr D White DDS BSc
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