HDR Software overview

HDR software overview

Certainly one of the most interesting upcoming technologies for photographers is High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI), allowing to work with the full real world levels of illumination. While standard image formats utilizes 8 or 16 bits with applied Gamma and color space, the HDR image format extends the bit depth up to 96bit in a linear color space.

On this overview we will focus on the currently available Windows GUI-based software packages that are able to create and process HDR images. I want to thank all authors of the respective software packages for their support during the creation of the overview, especially Geraldine Joffre, Andreas Schömann, Paul Nolan, and Thomas Lock. Aside from the windows based GUI packages Bernhard Vogl has evaluated, command line tools are also available and have been added to the table below.

The following software packages have been tested:

Software overview
Software	Homepage	Version	Platforms	Price	comments
Artizen	www.supportingcomputers.net	2.4.5	Win	59.99 CDN	-
EasyHDR	easyhdr.com	1.22	Win	19 EUR	-
FDRGui	fdrtools.com	1.8 (beta6)	Win, Mac	39.00 EUR	-
HDRShop	gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop	1.0	Win	free for non-commercial and educational use (commercial license: HDRShop 2 (399.00 USD))	no further development, superseded by the commercial version 2.0
Photogenics HDR	www.idruna.com	7.0	Win, Linux	699.00 USD	focuses on 3D workflow and film editing
Photomatix Pro	www.hdrsoft.com	2.3.1	Win, Mac	99.00 USD	-
Photoshop	www.adobe.com	9.0 (CS2)	Win, Mac	649.00 USD (US download) 1042.84 EUR (Europe boxed)	-
Picturenaut	No Homepage (download here)	1.9b (beta)	Win	free	German only software
pfstools	www.mpi-sb.mpg.de	1.5	Unix, Mac, (Win)	free, open source	Command line tools and two GUI (viewer and tonemapper) for creation and processing of hdr images.

As you can see,there is a wide variety of fees you have to pay for the different software packages. This is partly justified by the features and the editing functions the various programs offer.

HDR creation and tonemapping
Software	measure camera response curve	create HDR from bracketed images				create HDR from camera RAW image (*1)	tonemap image to LDR
		single HDR image creation	batch mode	LDR image alignment	ghost removal		number of different operators	single image	batch mode	parameters save-/restoreable	panoramic mapping
Artizen	○ (histogram)	√	–	manual	?	√	11 + 2 downloadable	√	–	√	–
EasyHDR	?	√	√	manual ?	?	√	1	√	during creation	√	–
FDRGui	√ & modify-able histogram	√	○ (via command line)	√	√	√	3 (also supports compression & contrast bracketing)	√	–	–	√
HDRShop	√	√	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Photogenics HDR	–	√ (relies on EXIF data)	–	?	?	– (tethered shooting with Canon cameras possible)	3	√	–	–	–
Photomatix Pro	√ (selectable)	√	√	√ (selectable)	√	√	2 + 2 LDR blending methods	√	√	√	○ (no zenith/nadir possible)
Photoshop	√ (supposedly automatic)	√ (relies on EXIF data)	–	√ (selectable)	?	–	4	√	–	√	–
Picturenaut	√ (selectable)	√	○ (via command line)	√ (selectable)	?	–	2	√	–	√/– (can read MKHDRI-curves)	–
pfstools	√ (pfscalibration, pfstmo with qpfstmo GUI)	√	○ (via command line)	-	-	√	7	??	√	-/– (command line)	–

*1: Most software relies on DCRaw for RAW conversion. Some cameras with extended DR capabilities are not converted correctly (e.g. Fuji's S3 camera: Although DCRaw could theoretically read all photosensors, it would need one conversion call for every photosite which is not implemented in the testes software packages.)

HDR image manipulation
There are basically 2 types of appications available: Converter software: This type of software will assist you in generating and tonemapping HDR images Image editors: These are full-flagged image manipulation programs that will also give you the possibility of HDR generation and tonemapping
Software	File formats (*1) EXR/HDR: 96bit TIFF: 32bit	software type	full image editing capabilities	manipulation essentials		no. of builtin panoramic transformations	filters			plugins possible
	read/write			resize, crop, rotate	white balance		approx number	HDR capable	scriptable
Artizen	EXR, HDR, TIFF	image editor	√	√	○ (color adjust)	4	>40	√	√	?
EasyHDR	HDR, TIFF	converter	–	–	√	–	–	–	–	–
FDRGui	EXR, HDR	converter	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HDRShop	HDR, TIFF	converter	–	√	√	6 (+ 3D rotation)	~15	√	–	√
Photogenics HDR	EXR, HDR, TIFF	image editor	√	√	○ (color adjust)	4	>40	√	–	√ (beta)
Photomatix Pro	EXR, HDR, TIFF	converter	–	√	–	1	–	–	–	–
Photoshop	EXR, HDR, TIFF (always assumes 32bit)	image editor	√	√	○ (white point adjust)	–	>40	~15	√	√
Picturenaut	HDR, TIFF	converter	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
pfstools	EXR, HDR, JPEG-HDR (read only), PFM, TIFF	converter	–	√	–	4	~11	√	√	not required

*1: TIFF: 32 bit floating point TIFF. Please note that the TIFF file format is an abstract container for various encoding methods. This may result in incompatibility when exchanging TIFF files between various applications.
This is also true to some extent for .hdr files. Though, all applications in this overview use the most recent file format.

UI functionality and large image processing
The best HDR software is not of much use if it lacks of an intuitive user interface. We will now have a look on some key functionality and UI design. We will also have a look if the applications utilize a clever memory management. The test file is a HDR panorama stitched by Hugin with a size of 8000x4000 pixels (32 Mpix), converted to the Radiance (.hdr) format.
Software	drag & drop operation from operating system possible		large image processing
	drop JPEG LDR images → generate HDR image	drop HDR image	load 32Mpix HDR file	tone map 32Mpix image
Artizen	no / no	no	runtime error	–
EasyHDR	no / no	no	runtime error	–
FDRGui	no / no	no	√	○ (very slow)
HDRShop	no / no (will open multiple images for editing)	√	√	n/a
Photogenics HDR	no / no (will open multiple images for editing)	√	√	○ (very slow)
Photomatix Pro	√ / √	√	√	√ (only in batch mode)
Photoshop	no / no (will open multiple images for editing)	√	√	√
Picturenaut	no / no	no	√	√
pfstools	no / no	no	√	√ (depends on algorithm)

--> next:

HDR and Tonemapping dialogs in detail

--Bvogl 12:13, 25 November 2006 (CET)