What software do members like best for processing bracketed HDR images?

P

Pobinr

Messages
6
Name
R Pearce
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi
I used my Alpha A7 iii today to take some images of a kitchen for a company's brochure. I took them using bracketing.
What software do forum members use for merging & processing bracketed HDR images?
Ideally not too expensive
Thanks
 
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I'm not aware of anything free that is any good.
Quite a few people use affinity photo, not free, but a one-off payment of around 70 quid.
There is a free trial too
affinity.serif.com

Affinity Photo – award-winning photo editing software

The only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iPad, Affinity Photo is the first choice of millions of professionals around the world.
affinity.serif.com affinity.serif.com
 
Cobra said:
I'm not aware of anything free that is any good.
Quite a few people use affinity photo, not free, but a one-off payment of around 70 quid.
There is a free trial too
affinity.serif.com

Affinity Photo – award-winning photo editing software

The only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iPad, Affinity Photo is the first choice of millions of professionals around the world.
affinity.serif.com affinity.serif.com
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Thanks will look into that
I realise it would be good if there's software that recognises different exposure shots of the same photo & opens & merges automatically.
I'm trying out a Photopad free trial
But unless I'm mistaken one has to browse tiny thumbnails to select which are the ones to merge
Which is quit fiddly
 
You an set Lightroom to group images taken within a certain time frame, although you would then need to do about 3 clicks to do a HDR merge on the group.
 
I've been using Photomatix pro for years. I swear by it. There is a learning curve, but once you figure out what settings work for your set up and type of shots your good to go.
 
I now use Affinity most of the time.

Fusion is free, and very good, been using it for years and still use it when I can't get just what I want with Affinity.
 
Pobinr said:
Thanks, but it's about £10 a month. Prefer something with one off fee.
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You can pay annually. If you just get a sub now and wait two months for Black Friday an annual subscription is usually on sale at Amazon for £70-£75. Well worth it in my view, there's a reason LR is by far the most popular image editor.
 
Why spend £1600 on a camera and then gripe at £10 a month for decent editing software. There is nothing to match the Adobe package. I have PhotoMatix but stopped using it many years ago because some images turned out blurred. It was a well known issue at the time but the Photomatix guys could not seem to fix it. Anyway it produced unrealistic colours. I later used Oloneo which was better in producing more natural colours. Once LR had this feature there was no turning back. Unlike the other software it does not use tone mapping but extends the dynamic range and you use LR editing tools as normal but with the increased dynamic range. Colours are natural.

Dave
 
Dave Canon said:
Why spend £1600 on a camera and then gripe at £10 a month for decent editing software. There is nothing to match the Adobe package. I have PhotoMatix but stopped using it many years ago because some images turned out blurred. It was a well known issue at the time but the Photomatix guys could not seem to fix it. Anyway it produced unrealistic colours. I later used Oloneo which was better in producing more natural colours. Once LR had this feature there was no turning back. Unlike the other software it does not use tone mapping but extends the dynamic range and you use LR editing tools as normal but with the increased dynamic range. Colours are natural.

Dave
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It's not the absolute best Raw converter out there, and certainly not for Fuji Raw files. But it's not bad, and in terms of price, ease of use and the resulting output it's head and shoulders above everything else. Yes I could get slightly better results using Capture 1, but it costs much more and their iPad app is a joke. I use LR most days, and to be honest probably use it on my phone more than anything else these days. I still find it incredible that I have a full Raw photo editor on my phone.
 
Pobinr said:
Thanks will look into that
I realise it would be good if there's software that recognises different exposure shots of the same photo & opens & merges automatically.
I'm trying out a Photopad free trial
But unless I'm mistaken one has to browse tiny thumbnails to select which are the ones to merge
Which is quit fiddly
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Any good just depends on the user. I use Picasa because it's free and seem's alright to me. I have Photoshop around here somewhere. Was given to me but I haven't a clue how to use it! Makes Picasa a steal! I have a brother that was a pro all his like and using photoshop to him just seem's a natural thing, he's a lot smarter than I am though!
 
Dave Canon said:
Why spend £1600 on a camera and then gripe at £10 a month for decent editing software. There is nothing to match the Adobe package. I have PhotoMatix but stopped using it many years ago because some images turned out blurred. It was a well known issue at the time but the Photomatix guys could not seem to fix it. Anyway it produced unrealistic colours. I later used Oloneo which was better in producing more natural colours. Once LR had this feature there was no turning back. Unlike the other software it does not use tone mapping but extends the dynamic range and you use LR editing tools as normal but with the increased dynamic range. Colours are natural.

Dave
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"Gripe"
Charming !
After ten years the £10 a month amounts to £1200
Not unreasonable to want to pay a one off fee
 
Pobinr said:
"Gripe"
Charming !
After ten years the £10 a month amounts to £1200
Not unreasonable to want to pay a one off fee
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I used to pay the "one off" fee but needed the regular updates and they cost me on average £100 per year (the same as the licence now). At that time I did not take every update and waited 2 years in most cases. So to now get all updates for the suite of software when released for £100 p.a. is a bargain. Software maintenance and development is expensive and has to be paid for by the customers.

Dave
 
Pobinr said:
"Gripe"
Charming !
After ten years the £10 a month amounts to £1200
Not unreasonable to want to pay a one off fee
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For that fee you get Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mobile, Lightroom for the iPad, and the ability to sync files between all of them, and a free website builder as well. Oh and Photoshop as well. The software is regularly updated with useful new features, usually about every 6 to 8 weeks. It's an absolute bargain and something I am happy to pay for.
 
RichardC27 said:
For that fee you get Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mobile, Lightroom for the iPad, and the ability to sync files between all of them, and a free website builder as well. Oh and Photoshop as well. The software is regularly updated with useful new features, usually about every 6 to 8 weeks. It's an absolute bargain and something I am happy to pay for.
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I hate to say it but I agree with you. And I only use LR Classic......

The software has come on in leaps and bounds in the last c2 years.
 
I would suggest that if you're a regular upgrader and don't mind software as a service then the Lightroom+ rental is acceptable. If you have financial or ethical problems with that model then look at some of the other options.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I would suggest that if you're a regular upgrader and don't mind software as a service then the Lightroom+ rental is acceptable. If you have financial or ethical problems with that model then look at some of the other options.
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What has ethical got to do with this?

Dave
 
Dave Canon said:
What has ethical got to do with this?

Dave
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If you beleive SaaS is unethical* then you will not wish to pay for software provided on that basis, like the current Adobe package.

*There is a much wider debate about the ethics of whether software should be owned or licensed as per the present model that's not revelent here except in this one small aspect.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
If you beleive SaaS is unethical* then you will not wish to pay for software provided on that basis, like the current Adobe package.

*There is a much wider debate about the ethics of whether software should be owned or licensed as per the present model that's not revelent here except in this one small aspect.
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Does this mean that some people think that if they pay a fixed sum for some some software then no more but they should continue to receive support and updates. If so, they need to understand that such a model in not commercially viable for the medium and long term. Adobe has always been in for the long term. I bought many of the early Topaz Plug-ins and upgrades were "free" but it was obvious to me that this model was not viable and has now changed with an annual fee for upgrades and support. In the last 3 years or so, I have probably spent more at Topaz than Adobe.

Dave
 
I did say

ancient_mariner said:
There is a much wider debate about the ethics of whether software should be owned or licensed as per the present model that's not revelent here except in this one small aspect.
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Historically it has been normal to buy a version that has expected limited time support until the next came along. Many were be happy with that model and some definitely prefer it. It also enabled those running older computers to ensure compatibility, and meant your software would be stable and reliable instead of being updated in ways you might not want.
 
jerry12953 said:
I hate to say it but I agree with you. And I only use LR Classic......

The software has come on in leaps and bounds in the last c2 years.
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I don't use LR Classic at all. I actually don't own a PC of any kind at the moment so I only use the iPad and mobile apps, but my dad uses the LR Classic part of my sub for his light photo editing needs.
 
Pobinr said:
"Gripe"
Charming !
After ten years the £10 a month amounts to £1200
Not unreasonable to want to pay a one off fee
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Just wondering how much you paid for food, shoes, diesel or even entertainment in that time? Do you expect software bought today to be relevant at all in 2034? You can surely go open source but all these other things, maybe you own a farm and can make own shoes...
 
ancient_mariner said:
I did say



Historically it has been normal to buy a version that has expected limited time support until the next came along. Many were be happy with that model and some definitely prefer it. It also enabled those running older computers to ensure compatibility, and meant your software would be stable and reliable instead of being updated in ways you might not want.
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Well said
 
Have any of you guys complaining about the cost of software ever had anything to do with technical software. Check out how much a bog basic version of Autocad costs. A Chinese clone of Autocad costs €600 + VAT. My Finite Element software costs me €1000 a year to keep it current. Capture One which is at the higher end of photographic software pricing costs me €110 a year. Compared to what I and it seems what many of you spend on gear, it is pretty good value.

For HDR I use Capture One, it works pretty well. SNS HDR is a good stand alone for realistic results, and costs very little.
 
It used to be £25k for a licence for the automotive simulation software I used to use. Until it went to a subscription model...
 
NCV said:
Have any of you guys complaining about the cost of software ever had anything to do with technical software. Check out how much a bog basic version of Autocad costs. A Chinese clone of Autocad costs €600 + VAT. My Finite Element software costs me €1000 a year to keep it current. Capture One which is at the higher end of photographic software pricing costs me €110 a year. Compared to what I and it seems what many of you spend on gear, it is pretty good value.

For HDR I use Capture One, it works pretty well. SNS HDR is a good stand alone for realistic results, and costs very little.
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How many seats does autocad have compared to lightroom? How much would the market bear if they were selling to home users?
 
NCV said:
All my technical software is for a single seat.

I just wanted to point out that photographic PP software is pretty good value for money.
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My point was that if AutoCAD is sold to 10,000 users, Lightroom is probably sold to 500,000 users. But the price of software is what the market will bare, and there's no connection to development costs.
 
ancient_mariner said:
My point was that if AutoCAD is sold to 10,000 users, Lightroom is probably sold to 500,000 users. But the price of software is what the market will bare, and there's no connection to development costs.
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I think you will find that this industry standard software is sold to hundreds of thousands of companies ranging from huge corporations, right down to the one man band technical studio. Capture One is aimed at Professional photographers. They both price at what their markets will support of course.
 
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