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 | 2.4.5 | Win | 59.99 CDN | - | |
| EasyHDR | 1.22 | Win | 19 EUR | - | |
| FDRTools Basic | 1.8.2 | Win, Mac | - | - | |
| FDRTools Advanced | 1.8.2 | Win, Mac | 39.00 EUR | - | |
| 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no further development, superseded by the commercial version 2.0 | |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 | 7.0 | Win, Linux | 699.00 USD | focuses on 3D workflow and film editing | |
| Photomatix Pro | 2.3.1 | Win, Mac | 99.00 USD | - | |
| Photoshop | 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 | 1.5 | Unix, Mac, (Win) | free, open source | Command line tools and two GUI (pfsview and qpfstmo) 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 |
|
|
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 via GUI | batch mode | parameters save-/restoreable | panoramic mapping (correct border and zenith/nadir blending) | |||
| Artizen | ○ (histogram) |
√ | – | manual | ? | √ | 11 + 2 downloadable | √ | – | √ | – |
| EasyHDR | ? | √ | √ | manual ? | ? | √ | 1 | √ | during creation | √ | – |
| FDRTools Basic | √ & modify-able histogram |
√ | ○ (via command line) |
√ | √ | √ | 2 | √ | ○ (via command line) |
– | √ |
| FDRTools Advanced | √ & modify-able histogram |
√ | ○ (via command line) |
√ | √ | √ | 3 (also supports compression & contrast bracketing) |
√ | ○ (via command line) |
– | √ |
| 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 | √ (qpfstmo) | √ | -/– (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:
| ||||||||||
| 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 | – | – | √ | – | – | – | – | – |
| FDRTools Basic | EXR, HDR, TIFF | converter | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| FDRTools Advanced | EXR, HDR, TIFF | 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 | √ | √ | n/a |
*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. | ||||
| 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 | – |
| FDRTools Basic | no / no | no | √ | ○ (very slow) |
| FDRTools Advanced | no / no | no | √ | ○ (very slow) |
| HDRShop | √ / no (will open multiple images for editing) |
√ | √ | n/a |
| Photogenics HDR | √ / no (will open multiple images for editing) |
√ | √ | ○ (very slow) |
| Photomatix Pro | √ / √ | √ | √ | √ (only in batch mode) |
| Photoshop | √ / no (will open multiple images for editing) |
√ | √ | √ |
| Picturenaut | no / no | no | √ | √ |
| pfstools | no / no | no | n/a (no GUI) | √ (depends on algorithm) |
--> next Page:
HDR and Tonemapping dialogs in detail
--Bvogl 12:13, 25 November 2006 (CET)