|
 A production of Multimedia and graphic tools company, Dynamic Photo HDR is a tool for creating and tone-mapping high dynamic range images from a set of differently exposed photos. First thing that draws attention in the program is the interface, different from the usual functional light grey and looking quite stylish with its dark lit diagrams.
The main concern of any user though is not the interface but the performance. Let's see what Dynamic Photo HDR can do.
Merging to HDR
New HDR image begins with loading a number of differently exposed images into the program. Loaded files are shown in the window and a first preview of the future result can be seen right there in two modes. If the images require alignment, that happens in most cases, even with the tripod, you better check 'align images in next step' check box before pressing ok.
The loaded images are shown as previews in the next window of the alignment stage. Here you can see the results of automatic alignment and adjust them manually by moving the images horizontally and/or vertically, and changing the angle in each pair. The difference blending mode view can help in the task.
This can work ok, though while the center of the image is properly aligned, the periphery can come not aligned at all almost, with blurriness and tripled contoures.
For such cases Dynamic Photo HDR has another aligning method - the method of wrapping with pins. The pins are set in different parts of the images and in those places the alignment is done with offset wheels. The program then wraps the rest of the image.
Pin wrapping takes quite a long time. The usability is also lessened a bit with the pin setting method - pins are added to the center of the current preview and you cannot move it at all. Aligning mode has no navigator either and all you can do is move around the image in the window you have.
Ghost removal, another frequently occurring problem of hdr making, also has its solution in Dynamic Photo HDR program and not a bad one. Ghost removal is done with masking. You are covering every moving object in every image and the process "will use the masks as a guide and leave only one object (the best exposed) and remove all the other ghosts, creating much cleaner picture that is easier to fix in post-processing".
This approach worked well with the people moving in the background, as you see in the examples above. But when used on the clouds shot on a windy day and having two shadows each in the resulted hdri it left quite visible traces of the mask and still did not remove all the ghosts.
Tone mapping
Tone mapping is the next stage of the workflow. Dynamic Photo HDR offers several tone-mapping methods. Note their names, based on the resulted look of the image and not on the nature of the method. The latter, by the way, are well explained in the user manual.
Each method has its own set of parameters appearing on the panel when the method is chosen. The user can save and load his/her own parameter presets for the use in the program. The current state of the image can also be saved to one of memory slot found on the bottom left of the tone-mapping window.
One of the methods, Eye Catching, based on local adaptation has an additional fine-tuning tool - the Light mask. It's regulated with a graph and can effect dramatic changes at high strength settings. The idea of Light Mask is to apply different strength of tone mapping to different tones of the image by following the graph settings.
While methods and their parameters are set on the left of the preview window, the right side contains several color-regulating graphs. Apart from curves allowing tuning the image contrast you find here color equalizer and hue shift. Each of them can be switched on and off at any time.
Except absolutely necessary tone-mapping adjusting controls Dynamic Photo HDR offers some, as they put it, "fun" tools. These are Match Color and Color Filter options.
Match color and color filters
Match Color allows changing the tonality of the image to match another photo or a painting. Dynamic Photo HDR offers a set of paintings for matching but the user can also load any image for matching.
Color filters include black and white presets, some "Mysterious light" filters and a number of vignettes that when applied, especially in a combination with Match Color, can give a picture a completely different and far from reality look. Playing with these functions is fun indeed. What puzzled me though is the absence of "undo" or reset in the program.
We should mention also that Dynamic Photo HDR can create fake hdrs from single jpg files as well. The fake tone-mapping is restricted to two methods - Eye Catching and ... and can produce a lot of noise in the shadows.
Dynamic Photo HDR can be purchased at www.mediachance.com site for just $39. A trial is available for unlimited period but with restricted functionality and a watermark on a saved image. The trial can work also in a showcase mode, where full functionality is present but you cannot save images.
To compare Dynamic Photo HDR with other hdr tools see HDR tools - Comparison and HDR tools - Rating articles.
|
Reviews 
