HDR images

[photoken]

One of the features that is not mentioned about PhotoLine 18.53 is that it's one of the few programs on earth (RawTherapee, Lightroom, and possibly Photoshop are the others) than can open 16-, 24-, and 32-bit floating-point DNG RAW images created by the excellent (and free) HDRMerge utility (Windows only):
http://jcelaya.github.io/hdrmerge/

If you've been disappointed with the results using PL's Create HDR-Image function, HDRMerge is certainly one of the options that should be considered.

N.B.: Due to limitations with the 3rd party software that PL uses to de-mosaic RAW images, the floating-point DNG images are opened as DNG images with 16-bit integer precision. See this explanation:
http://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.ph ... =15#p30848

[MikeFromMesa]

One of the features that is not mentioned about PhotoLine 18.53 is that it's one of the few programs on earth (RawTherapee, Lightroom, and possibly Photoshop are the others) than can open 16-, 24-, and 32-bit floating-point DNG RAW images created by the excellent (and free) HDRMerge utility (Windows only):
http://jcelaya.github.io/hdrmerge/

If you've been disappointed with the results using PL's Create HDR-Image function, HDRMerge is certainly one of the options that should be considered.

N.B.: Due to limitations with the 3rd party software that PL uses to de-mosaic RAW images, the floating-point DNG images are opened as DNG images with 16-bit integer precision. See this explanation:
http://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.ph ... =15#p30848

Photoshop CS5.1 (Windows), Photoshop CC and Photoshop Elements (Mac) will all open the 32 bit dng files produced by HDRMerge although all of them open the image with ACR which automatically converts the image to, at most, 16 bit depth. PL also opens the image at 16 bits. Adobe Bridge also will open the image, but you can not do much with it. With PS CS5.1, PS CC and PL you can change the image back to 32 bit once the image is loaded. You cannot do that with Elements, of course.

Many of the other editors that I have played with will not open the image because they do not handle dng format images at all, either because of marketing or other considerations. CaptureOne, which will open dng images, will not open either the 16 or 32 bit versions of the HDRMerge file and the same is true for OnOne's PerfectSuite 8. I do not have version 9 so I cannot speak for that.

[photoken]

Hi Mike,
Yeah, I suspected that recent versions of ACR would be able to at least open the floating-point DNGs. The docs for HDRMerge say that 32-bit will likely never need to be used, and I can confirm that I've seen precious little difference between the 32-bit and lower bit depths, but I only tested with 3 merged images.

Seems like RawTherapee is the only program that can keep the higher bit depth and floating-point precision throughout its workflow -- it's always used 32-bit floating-point numbers for its internal calculations, anyway, and the author of HDRMerge wrote the code for RT to enable it to de-mosaic as 16-, 24-, and 32-bit floating-point.

[MikeFromMesa]

Yeah, I suspected that recent versions of ACR would be able to at least open the floating-point DNGs. The docs for HDRMerge say that 32-bit will likely never need to be used, and I can confirm that I've seen precious little difference between the 32-bit and lower bit depths, but I only tested with 3 merged images.

I think most people cannot see any difference between 8 and 16 bits so I would think that the difference between 16 and 32 bits would be too minor to be visible to the normal naked eye (or, in my case, the eye with glasses on ) so I am impressed that you can see even a small difference. I assume, of course, that would be less true as more adjustments are made.

Seems like RawTherapee is the only program that can keep the higher bit depth and floating-point precision throughout its workflow -- it's always used 32-bit floating-point numbers for its internal calculations, anyway, and the author of HDRMerge wrote the code for RT to enable it to de-mosaic as 16-, 24-, and 32-bit floating-point.

Interesting. I did not know that.

I have only played with HDRMerge a little bit but I did not see much in the way of tools to adjust the image. I assume that is why it produces a 32 bit dng which can then be used in serious editors like PL and PS. What puzzles me is that some of my editors, which do process dng files, will not open the dng files from HDRMerge. I have tried that with both 16 bit and 32 bit depths and some of these editors/raw converters will just not open the images from HDRMerge. For example, CaptureOne, which I use to process dng images as part of my normal workflow, will not open the HDRMerge images and PerfectSuite 8, which I use only rarely, but which does open dngs, will not process them either. I wonder if there is something odd about the format.

UPDATE:
This probably comes under the heading of too much information but, after checking, it appears that Aperture, which does open dng images, will not open the HDRMerge images either. Neither the 16 or 32 bit images. Nor those same images when run through the Adobe dng converter. That is,

HDRMerge images -> Adobe dng converter -> new dng images -> Editor ==> will not load in Aperture, CaptureOne nor OnOne's Perfect Suite 8.

[photoken]

I think most people cannot see any difference between 8 and 16 bits so I would think that the difference between 16 and 32 bits would be too minor to be visible to the normal naked eye (or, in my case, the eye with glasses on ) so I am impressed that you can see even a small difference. I assume, of course, that would be less true as more adjustments are made.

Yep. When I said "precious little", "little" was the operative word. Given my small sample (I only have 3 images from my camera I can use to test exposure merging), the lack of obvious differences could be due to the small areas involved, or the smooth job of blending that HDRMerge did, or like you said not having a lot of areas that were blended. One of the RT developers was actively involved working with the HDRMerge developer to refine the software, and his rule of thumb is to use 16-bits for merging up to 5 images, 24-bits for merging 5 or more (only if an improvement can be seen), and never using 32-bit.

I have only played with HDRMerge a little bit but I did not see much in the way of tools to adjust the image.

There aren't any, except for painting image areas to include or exclude. The developer explains that one of the results of using the technique is that it requires little or no user input. In fact, it can be run as a commandline app.

I assume that is why it produces a 32 bit dng which can then be used in serious editors like PL and PS. What puzzles me is that some of my editors, which do process dng files, will not open the dng files from HDRMerge. I have tried that with both 16 bit and 32 bit depths and some of these editors/raw converters will just not open the images from HDRMerge. For example, CaptureOne, which I use to process dng images as part of my normal workflow, will not open the HDRMerge images and PerfectSuite 8, which I use only rarely, but which does open dngs, will not process them either. I wonder if there is something odd about the format.

It can create 16-, or 24-, or 32-bit DNGs. The critical thing is that those DNGs use floating-point numbers for the data values. Those floating-point values are what cause other software to barf on the DNGs. PSP, for example, simply shows an error message about an invalid DNG.

[Kristen1]

Some tips from the pro photographer HDR allows a greater range of brightness in the image, the range can be much greater than in a normal image. True Image HDR creates from several images of the same scene taken with different exposure settings slightly. I use https://aurorahdr.com and LR if I need to edit some pics.