Free HDR software?

[neverhood311]

Hey, I'm sorry if this topic has already come up before. I searched it and the search engine would only accept 'free' as a keyword and not 'hdr.'

Anyways....I'm looking for some free HDR processing software. I've got the Photomatix plugin for photoshop CS2, but I can't stand those annoying watermarks and don't feel like dishing out money for 1's and 0's. Is there some good free stuff out there that doesn't have major limitations? I heard about something called qtpfsgui that's supposedly pretty good, but I can't find the free English download (just Russian). There's supposedly a free version 1.9.3 and version 2.0 that just came out but it costs 15 euros.

Any tips?

[Shadowman]

FDRTools is free. It has some additional plugins that you can purchase, but to get a quick start the free download works great. I have found that the alignment tool is a bit tricky, there is a tripod addon that supposedly fixes the issue. If you save in RAW format then the conversion is flawless.

Hey, I'm sorry if this topic has already come up before. I searched it and the search engine would only accept 'free' as a keyword and not 'hdr.'

Anyways....I'm looking for some free HDR processing software. I've got the Photomatix plugin for photoshop CS2, but I can't stand those annoying watermarks and don't feel like dishing out money for 1's and 0's. Is there some good free stuff out there that doesn't have major limitations? I heard about something called qtpfsgui that's supposedly pretty good, but I can't find the free English download (just Russian). There's supposedly a free version 1.9.3 and version 2.0 that just came out but it costs 15 euros.

Any tips?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Justin,

Why not just use the Merge to HDR feature in CS2?

[neverhood311]

Why not just use the Merge to HDR feature in CS2?

Yeah, I use the 'merge to HDR' tool in photoshop but I don't think photoshop has any sort of tonemapping ability. My photos always turn out looking really weird without tonemapping.

[Colin Southern]

Yeah, I use the 'merge to HDR' tool in photoshop but I don't think photoshop has any sort of tonemapping ability.

Photoshop is LOADED with tone mapping controls Just set realistic clipping points whilst in 32 bit mode and then (when in 16 bit mode) just use normal curves / levels / dodging / burning etc.

Possibly one of the biggest issues I see people struggling with with HDR is lask of conventional post-processing; there seems to be a popular misconception that they're finished when they pop out of the HDR rendering software.

[Pebal]

SNS-HDR Lite - full automatic.

[proseak]

Picturenaut, and there's Zero Noise virtual RAW. I've tried Picturenaut with some success but not yet the other (Zero Noise virtual RAW)

HTH

Peter

[neverhood311]

Here's an HDR I made tonight with Qtpfsgui 1.9.3. I need feedback. Does it look overdone? What can I improve on? It's only the 4th or 5th HDR I've done.

[Shadowman]

Justin,

Most do, it's up to the editor to determine how much is too much. I think your image looks fine.

Here's an HDR I made tonight with Qtpfsgui 1.9.3. I need feedback. Does it look overdone? What can I improve on? It's only the 4th or 5th HDR I've done.

[proseak]

I like this one a lot - the "surreal" look takes a bit of noticing...great feeling of space.