As you probably already know, I am a very keen photographer. One of my strongest passions is the so called HDR photography. In this article I would like to present my favorite HDR software application, Photomatix, which allows me the creation of amazing HDR pictures.

HDR (also known as HDRI) stays for high-dynamic-range imaging. Images made using this technique (or to be exacter, a set of techniques) dispose of an encoding which allows widest range of valuables. This on its turn makes it possible to precisely represent the broad range of intensity that is to be found in real scenes – from direct sunlight to deepest of shadows. Although already developed in the 30es by Charles Wyckoff, it has not been until the last few years that HDR started to increasingly gain popularity. Earlier, cameras and computers have simply lacked the power to support it.

Light is a common problem in photography. Black and white seem to always be in a fierce struggle and constantly try to dominate over each other. This results in dark areas left without details, nebulous and lifeless or light areas fading away to nothingness. Photomatix is your personal software judge who brings balance back into the conflict.

Photomatix provides two main methods for creating HDR images: merging of multiple exposures (through the so called Exposure Fusion) and adjusting the highlights and shadows in a single image (through the so called Tone Mapping).

Typical for Photomatix is the first method, Exposure Fusion. It requires that a series of pictures is taken, while only the shutter speed is changing. It is recommended neither to let the camera move even slightly, nor to use flash.

As soon as the image is loaded in Photomatix, you will see the preview of the merged image and dialogue window (with various settings) to control the processes of Exposure Fusion and Tone Mapping.

The first directly combines the image sources and offers natural look. The latter reduces the strong contrast in HDR images (in order to facilitate their display on low dynamic range devices) and might also be used to achieve more artistic or surrealistic effects. With saving the final version of your image, the process of merging is finished.

Sometimes, when a series of shots is taken, it is as good as inevitable for some movement to be present – be it a tree branch shaken by the wind or a bird flying through. Photomatix deals with this problem via a process called “De-Ghosting”. It allows marking the areas that need to be de-ghosted and selecting which image they should not appear on. Furthermore, Photomatix can run in auto de-ghosting mode, thus automating the process.

Another problem, emblematic for photography and image processing, is the presence of noise. Photomatix offers improved noise reduction which can handle chromatic and luminance noise. Based on the level of noise, its strength can either be increased or decreased. Noise reduction is applicable both to source image (which requires longer processing) and to the already merged image.

Photomatix also features specific smoothing methods like micro-smoothing (local detail smoothing, which provides cleaner optics to the end-image) and highlight-smoothing (used to ascertain white highlights will not turn grey and to decrease halos around bright-backgrounded elements).

To simplify the working process, Photomatix disposes of a built-in Preset Thumbnails Panel, which offers a wide set of Exposure Fusion and Tone Mapping presets. Needless to say, its position is customizable according to one’s needs.

I could speak hours long about Photomatix, as it is most definitely the program of my preferred choice and my personal liking. Nevertheless, I suggest, you’d better try it out for yourself. It is a commercial product. However, a free trial is available. I strongly and warmly recommend that you follow the link at the bottom of this article and download it.

If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then a HDR picture should be worth at least a book.

Photomatix free trial:Click Here