PS Elements 11, Merge to 32-bit HDR Plug-in for Lightroom or HDR Efex Pro2?

[aebolzan]

I wonder which is the best solution for using with Lightroom. I have no experience with HDR ....I guess that probably Jeff and Michael use Photoshop for that (as they show in their LR4 videos) but I would like to know if someone has any experience with these other three possible solutions. Elements appears more interesting because I can also do panoramas, but perhaps  the other ones are simpler or produce better results....
thanks in advance!

Agustin

[s4e]

Merge to 32-bit HDR plug-in is very easy to use and produce a much better result than Photoshop CS4.

I think Photoshop improved HDR in CS5. I don't know if this improvement also is implemented in Elements?
The same question for Panorama. Do Elements 11 have the same Panorama quality as CS 6?

[Tony Jay]

Are you wanting to do the full image edit in those programs or merely the merge-to-HDR and then reimport back into Lr to do the tonemapping?

Regards

Tony Jay

[aebolzan]

Thanks s4e for your answer: I have just read some comments from Matt Kloskowski in his blog who says: "Elements does have an “Exposure Merge” feature which is HDR-ish. But honestly (sorry Elements), it is nothing close to HDR and it doesn’t even merge exposures that well so I’d recommend to never use this feature. "....so I have discarded Elements from the options...

Tony: as I have no experience with HDR I do not know what is better i.e., to do full edit out Lightroom or merge images out and then edit the resulting tif in Lightroom...this could be my next question......is Lightroom 4.1 capable of doing a good job with tonemapping or one still needs the help of third party plugins?

Agustin

[s4e]

You need another application or plugin to merge bracket shots in different exposure to a 32 bit HDR file. Then you can do your editing in Lightroom with this file using the familar adjustment tool in Lightroom.

In the latest video Jeff hinted that this cabability could be part of a comming version of Lightroom. And hopefully Panorama to.

[aduke]

LR4.2 can tone-map 32-bit images. It seems to work quite nicely.

Alan

[aebolzan]

Thanks! then,  I will try Merge 32 with LR 4.2 and see....on the other hand, as far as I understood, Jeff gave some hint about the possible arrival of Panorama facilities in LR, not HDR, but I could be wrong....(by the way: the videos of Michael and Jeff are superb!)

Agustin

[s4e]

Thanks! then,  I will try Merge 32 with LR 4.2 and see....on the other hand, as far as I understood, Jeff gave some hint about the possible arrival of Panorama facilities in LR, not HDR, but I could be wrong....(by the way: the videos of Michael and Jeff are superb!)

Agustin

LR 4.2 can tone map 32 bit HDR files but not make the 32 bit file. You need an application or plugin for that.