Software

[Johan Smidt]

Hi Friends,

Sorry to be the ever-questioning one amongst you, but :

I'm trying to make a choice betweeb CxO Lab 6.5 and Photomatix to use in conjunction with Elements 9. Both those (raw) systems seem to me to be involved and have a steep learning curve.

Anybody out there to commiserate with me or have a clear view on which unit will be better to acquire ? I'm especially keen to develop my HDR skills.

Thanks a stack,

Johan.

[PaulMontgomery]

I've used DXO (if that's what you meant) and found it quite easy to learn (it has a lot of auto settings to get you started). If I remember, you can download a free trial.

[Johan Smidt]

Thanks Paul, yes - DxO is the right name. Thick fingers !

[GeoffWessex]

Photomatix? I know it can handle Raw shots for HDR purposes, but it's not really in the same business as DxO. Is it?

[TerryGrealey]

DxO is extremely user friendly and you can do HDR rendering with only a single RAW image.

[GeoffWessex]

Hmmm, well I've seen this kind of discussion get a bit out of hand but.... it has to be said..... HDR is not possible from a single exposure. Only the effects similar to tone mapping are possible.

HDR involves finding details in both the highlights and the shadows of any scene. Any scene whose dynamic range (the difference between the darkest and lightest areas) goes beyond the capabilities of the camera will have blocked out shadows and/or burnt out highlights. Using a single exposure, therefore, to get details on both, from a picture with high dynamic range is impossible. What Photomatix and any other HDR software does with one exposure is make multiple versions of the one exposure and get as much detail as it can, then blend it together. But if that detail at both ends of the range are blocked out or blown out - no amount of fiddling will find them - they're just not there! It's not like rubbing out the extremes of the light range to uncover what's underneat..... because nothing's underneath - it wasn't recorded!

Only by making multiple exposures in the camera to cover both ends of the dynamic range of a scene - and then combining them - can we really make a single picture that shows this.

[Johan Smidt]

Thanks Geoff - makes sense, but 'zines and other sources seem to suggest otherwise.
Obviously will try this out for myself, but as a beginner, it will be difficult to really note the diffrences.

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by TerryGrealey

DxO is extremely user friendly and you can do HDR rendering with only a single RAW image.

No. It can't.

Originally Posted by Johan Smidt

Thanks Geoff - makes sense, but 'zines and other sources seem to suggest otherwise.

Yeah, and they're wrong. Using a single RAW file and over/under exposing it using a RAW editor is a process called DRI.

I used to go on about this all the time, but I gave up in the end. Basically, the information captured in a RAW file is fixed. End of. You can't add more and you can't take it away. You can make it brighter or darker and this is relatively easy to do (certainly much easier than it is with a JPEG file) but the range from lightest to darkest is fixed.

I actually had to explain this so many times that I wrote an FAQ section on my website which might be of interest... LINK

Software-wise, both are good. Photomatix is the more advanced and flexible HDR program as it offers more refined tone mapping options and has greater control of the local adaptations. DxO is a good program as well, and offers some rather useful other features like optical corrections.
You pays your money and you takes your pick (or you get dodgy copies of both for free I suppose )