Sunday, January 20, 2013

HDR Showdown

If you have been following my blog, you will know I am a big fan of train interior shots.  I have always considered the below train interior image one of my best pictures.  Originally it was taken as a 3 shot bracketed HDR edited with Photomatix.

I have been using Photomatix for my HDR work for over a year but I haven't really been happy with the "softness" that the images produce.  Today I purchased a copy of HDR Efex Pro and re-edited the image.  The difference in quality is stunning. HDR Efex Pro left a brighter, more realistic image that is sharp and clean.  Look at the details in the train ceiling. Look at the richness of the wall colors.

I am hooked. HDR Efex Pro rocks. The editing controls are simple and clear. The detail it produces is fantastic. But at the same time, it is far from perfect. I tried to re-edit a bracketed landscape image from last year and the Photomatix results are fantastic while HDR Efex Pro really made a mess out of the image.  I think both products are great to have, depending on the image type.

I played around with some bracketed image of Vasco Caves and found that Efex Pro did a nice job. You can see the image is slightly sharper.


Photomatix HDR

HDR Efex Pro

Photomatix

HDR Efex Pro

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