I’ve watched the technology mature and felt its growing pains as the software gradually became more and more popular – and even (eventually) user-friendly. Accessible HDR photography was in its very early stages then, as most people outside of science labs hadn’t even heard the term before. Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and I’ve been experimenting with HDR photography since I first got serious about digital photography over a decade ago. Batch processing could be improved, and it would be nice to get a bit more control over the compositing process with layer-based editing, but these are fairly minor issues in an otherwise excellent program.
New users will love the simple workflow, and users of Aurora’s previous versions will appreciate the tone mapping improvements provided by the Quantum HDR Engine. Many of the other dedicated HDR editors available are virtually unusable and produce terrible composites, but Aurora takes all the hassle out of the process. Once the tone mapped image is ready, making further adjustments is just as simple and intuitive as editing a typical RAW image.Īurora HDR is easily one of the best HDR software available today. Compositing is fast, even with automatic noise removal enabled across 5+ high-resolution source images. The new Quantum HDR Engine does an excellent job of automatically tone mapping your images, and automatic alignment and de-ghosting correct any camera or subject movement between your bracketed images. Improved HDR Details Boost Effect (the photo is shown in high-resolution while fine-tuning the filter)Īurora HDR 2019 will be available for pre-order on September, 12, and released on October, 4.Aurora HDR takes the complex process of HDR compositing and makes it extremely simple. Improved Adjustable Gradient filter with new sliders for Shadows and Highlights added New HDR Smart Structure filter for realistic and artefact-free structure (can be found in the new HDR Enhance filter) Skylum’s developers tested thousands of bracketed shots through a neural network, and used the results to develop the technology needed for creating incredible HDR photographs - whether it’s real estate, landscape, cityscape or any other type of HDR photography. The Quantum HDR Engine has taken three years to create within Skylum’s AI lab, and contains the vast knowledge of the development team paired with artificial intelligence to bring you seamless HDR editing, be it with a single image or multiple bracketed shots. It reduces burned-out colors, loss of contrast, noise and unnatural lighting caused by halos and unstable deghosting. Skylum’s Quantum HDR Engine harnesses the power of AI for a more streamlined editing experience than ever before. Here are a few more details about the new version. It offers totally none destructive editing with a new and improved History panel which will allow you to revert back to any point in your editing workflow. I highly recommend Aurora HDR 2019 because it can really help take your images to the next level.
Did you forget to take a bracketed series of images? No problem, Aurora HDR can extract the most information possible out of a single image and the final result will have more detail throughout your exposure. This will allow you to use all of the best parts of the exposures and to combine them into one image that has the correct exposure throughout the entire image. It helps to take these images with a tripod so you get exactly the same shot every time. The solution to this problem is to take a series of bracketed exposures ( like -2 ev, 0, and +2 ev) and combine them with an HDR program like Aurora HDR 2019. This means that you will end up with some images that have over exposed highlights or underexposed shadows. The problem is your camera isn’t as good as your eyes and most cameras can only capture about 10-12 stops of dynamic range. When you look at something with your eyes you can see about 20 stops of light which means you can see details in the shadows and in the highlights of a scene. Why do you need an HDR program or plugin? Well it all comes down to dynamic range.
MacPhun used to make great image editing software for the Mac, but they have re-invented themselves as Skylum and now offer their software for both Mac and PCs. I’ll put the pre-order link and details below.
Skylum, formerly know as MacPhun, will be releasing a new version of Aurora HDR 2019 on October 4th but you can pre-order the software today and get some special bonuses.