Photomatix Pro 6

Photomatix Pro is a wonderfully easy software package to use. Select the images you want to use to create your HDR image, click on a button, and it's done. Click another button to tone-map the HDR image back into an image that will look good on paper or your computer screen, and it's done again. It's so easy your spouse's mouth-breathing brother could do it.Unless that mouth-breathing in-law is also a man of sensitive artistic taste and deft skill, the results will look awful. That's where the program becomes more demanding. It gives you two options for tone-mapping, one that enhances details, another that takes a more global approach. To explain just a little, your HDR image is like a negative, full of information that has to be interpreted into a positive before the picture looks good. The detail enhancing tone-mapper brings out every little detail on that negative, high-lighting the transitions from brick to brick, leaf to leaf, and stripping away shaddows to reveal what might be hiding in the dark. The more global technique de-emphasizes those details in favor of creating a smoother image, one where the over-all balance of shaddow and light in the negative is the focus. The result is more photographic.You might think then that the artistic decision is in deciding which tone-mapper to use. Wrong. Each tone-mapping option comes with a variety of sliders to adjust things like contrast, luminosity, the intensity of whites and blacks, color temperature and so on. Choose wisely and you can get beautiful results with either tone-mapping option. Those gorgeous images you see in the how-to books are well on their way to being realized on your computer screen. Choose badly and you get garish, eye-watering results. Look at HDR images on-line and the great majority fall into that second category. The problem is that very few of us are both tasteful and technically proficient artists.There are ways to make up for artistic deficiencies. Photomatix comes with pre-sets that allow you to choose your look - painterly, grungy, standard photographic. Think of those as frozen dinner equivalents. They can actually look pretty good, just not as staggeringly good as the examples in the books. They can't make you a good photographer, and they can't capture the subtleties you might have seen when you saw the scene you decided to photograph. But they can get you on your way to seeing what the software can do. Ultimately, you'll have to play with the sliders and figure out what works for you. Buy some how-to books and try their "recipes" and then get creative. Just understand that it will take time and effort to become a chef and get a feel for which ingredients will go well in which images.Photomatix can only do so much. I think that at some point you'll want to do more fixing in Photoshop or another program if your aim is gallery-quality prints. I have no doubt that Photomatix is the way to go to create the initial HDR negative, and its tone-mapping functions are the way to go to create your initial positive. But then you'll move the job to Photoshop for some smoothing here, some cloning there to touch up what Photomatix's ghost-correcting function started, a bit of work to get rid of halos around buildings, then the application of some tools to enhance your artistic vision. You'll do more than 90% of the work in Photomatix though, and for most photos that will probably be enough.I'm still very much in the learning phase with this program, but I'm having a great time learning to use it. My results are nowhere near the pictures in the how-to books, but it took only a couple of hours of playing with it to get results I really liked. HDR isn't for every situation or for every subject, but in the right situation, it adds a whole new dimension to your images. Photomatix Pro is an excellent product to get you started.

Photomatix Pro 5 is pretty much the standard software for HDR photography. It gives the user the ability to get a realistic HDR image or a surreal image. It's interface is pretty much straight forward. The GUI has none of those cute little things that distract from the task. For bracketed images, tone mapping and exposure fusion are available. I play with both to see which comes closer to what I want. Single images (raw, tiff, or even jpeg) can be tone mapped giving good results, but not as good as bracketed images.This is not a do all end all program. It's really good at tone mapping and exposure fusion. Everything else such as white point, black point, saturation and other adjustments, is only very basic and can be done better in a photo editor. For instance, saturation in Photomatix is global, affecting the whole image. In a good photo editor hue, saturation, and luminance can be performed on individual colors.It has several presets. Some of these may work on some images. The monochrome presets seem to be a global desaturation. Better b&w can be done in a photo editor. My take on presets is to try them. But I usually end up doing my HDR adjustments manually. After all, I want to control how my photo looks, not have a program telling me how it should look.Think of the file that Photomatix creates as a raw image. Create the HDR only in Photomatix. Then do your final adjustments in your favorite photo editor.There are plenty of tutorials on the web for Photomatix. Check them out. Some of them are really good. Also read the manual that comes in the box, especially the section on how to get your bracketed shots. Pay attention to where the shadows and highlights for the different shots should be on the histogram for the best results.Photography will change how you see things. HDR and Photomatix will change how you will visualize your images.

Amateur photographer. Took a workshop and others there used Photomatix. Bought it and was amazed at the outcomes. I've not gotten into custom tweaking, mainly using the default settings. I was satisfied and more interested in HDR. As I searched out other HDR software I came across the HDR Projects 4 Professional. About the same price and it has many more features. While that adds to the complexity there are 149 presets that do more than I ever imagined.In HDR Projects 4 you can choose the lighting, pick between multiple settings for ghosting, adjust noise suppression, alignment options, etc, all in the opening screen. The only thing I've adjusted is turning on ghosting. Loading an image is quicker in HDR Projects, but not my that much.The 149 presents are grouped into natural, landscape, architecture and a few others. Previewing is instant and you an add individual presents to a 'favorites' group.But the proof is in the pudding (wonder that that means?). Here are three photos. One is the original, a shot of a stream near my house. There are also HDR results using default settings (other than ghosting) in both HDR Projects 4 and Photomatix. Both are definite improvements and acceptable, but I prefer the HDR Projects. This was done without any tweaking by just selecting a preset and I was amazed at the outcome.Right file is the original, left is Photomatix, middle is HDR Projects. I gave Photomatix 4 stars as I think it's a good solid program that produces good results. I would give HDR Projects 5 stars for the added features, presets and speed. I found it easier to use. If you're comparing go to the respective company's website for the most information and latest versions.

Impossible de travaille avec le produit car il est en Anglais

Das Programm arbeitet zuverlässig, so wie ich es von der Vorgängerversion gewohnt bin. Die Gesichtserkennung benutze ich nicht. Anfänger müssen sich einarbeiten. Für meine Belange ist es perfekt!

I Love this program, easy to use after the first couple of tries, it gives you lots of options, the sliders work great.Thank you.

This is a brilliant piece of kit. So easy to install alongside Photoshop and Lightroom and so easy to use. I have read so much on the internet about different hdr products and this one seemed to be the best. I can't imagine being without it now. Just load your three exposure shots and let the software do its thing, the results are stunning and, if you dont like what you see, it's so easy to tweak the colours and saturation etc. Plus, there are lots and lots of presets you can play around with.If you want to try hdr, get this, you won't regret it.I'd recommend this to anyone.

Although on the web site it appears English, it is in fact a German CD with no option to change the language.