# Photomatix- are there any satisfied customers?



## Robert T Higaki (Jul 28, 2009)

I got off the phone with a friend in LA. He suggested this product called Photomatix for shooting high contrast situations. I want take advantage of this forum to reach out to more people and get more opinions on this product.

                         Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## happycranker (Jul 28, 2009)

Bob, I am one very happy customer. I have used it for over a year now and it works really well, with plenty of adjustments for tone mapping as well as exposure, blackpoint etc.

Because I mainly handhold when bracketing, I now use PS4 to align the pictures first, then save the file as an .EXR extension, before going to Photomatix. This is because PS4 does a better job of alignment, compared with Photomatix.


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## RikkFlohr (Jul 28, 2009)

I endorse the program whole-heartedly-provided it is used for good and not evil. Like happycranker, I think CS4 does a better job aligning but the processing of the HDR into a visible image is much better in Photomatix. I use it on both the MAC and PC and love it both places. 

Be careful. It can become seductive and in the wrong hands many gaudy images result.


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## Robert T Higaki (Jul 28, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback. I do not have PS4/CS4 but can I avoid the alignment problems using a tripod?

                            Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## LJR69 (Jul 28, 2009)

I've used it too and agree that it's a great little app in the right hands. The tone mapping features are in my opinion better than those in PS. And, yes, you can get around alignment issues if you shoot with a tripod.


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## Gene McCullagh (Jul 28, 2009)

Photomatix is an EXCELLENT program and comes with an LR plugin so you can round trip right from your LR catalog. 

Take a look at a recent post of mine. There are two videos by Ben Wilmore. He walks you through Photomatix in Part 2 but both are worth watching. It's at http://lightroomsecrets.com/2''9/'6/lightroom-photomatix-and-the-single-shot-hdr/

Trey Ratcliff also has an excellent HDR tutorial that looks at Photomatix at http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/


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## LJR69 (Jul 28, 2009)

I already purchased Photomatix Pro. I'll need to go back to the site to see if I can download the LR plugin.


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## JohnnyV (Jul 28, 2009)

From what I've read the newest release does an excellent job of aligning.... better than the older version.


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## Halfje-Bruin (Jul 29, 2009)

[quote author=LJR69 link=topic=7368.msg5'239#msg5'239 date=1248787922]
I already purchased Photomatix Pro. I'll need to go back to the site to see if I can download the LR plugin.
[/quote]

The plugin is included in the latest version of Photomatix and will install automatically.


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## LJR69 (Jul 29, 2009)

Coolio. I just fired up Photomatix Pro and had it download the latest update and you're spot on right. The plugin was available in the folder. Just installed it and now able to use it from within LR. 
Thanx


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## watsonm (Aug 1, 2009)

Another vote here from a happy customer. Have been using it for about 18 months and still learning not to overdo it.....

I tend to always use a tripod and use AEB to take 3 quick shots to minimize movement (not always sucessfully)

Typical example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-watson/373572''18/


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## liquidmonkey (Aug 1, 2009)

just started using photomatix today and its pretty good!!
can recommend it to anyone who wants to check out HDR creation.


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## Souwalker (Aug 6, 2009)

Second to all of the above


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 10, 2009)

Thank you for the positive feedbacks. I will be purchasing Photomatix shortly.

                         Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## sizzlingbadger (Aug 11, 2009)

I have been playing with the trial version and it looks promising. I think there is a learning curve to producing good results though. It can also auto stack the finished image back in the library.


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## Halfje-Bruin (Aug 11, 2009)

[quote author=Robert T Higaki link=topic=7368.msg51357#msg51357 date=1249944351]
Thank you for the positive feedbacks. I will be purchasing Photomatix shortly.

                         Bob- the slide shooter at heart
[/quote]

See this link for a 15% discount on Photomatix Pro.


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 12, 2009)

[/quote]

See this link for a 15% discount on Photomatix Pro.
[/quote]

    Kees de Bruin,

   Thank you very much for sharing that!

           Bob- the slide shooter at heart

                       Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 12, 2009)

I just purchased the product. Again, thanks to all for taking the time to give your opinions. And big thanks to Kees for the tip on the electronic discount!

                                Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## Halfje-Bruin (Aug 12, 2009)

Robert,

Have fun and show us some of the results!


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 13, 2009)

I will and I will try to post results within a reasonable time. 

                            Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 16, 2009)

Ok, I promised to post something so here it goes. I had to pick a subject which the entire world would recognize-John Lennon
There are four shots: #1( no number) I used matrix metering- no adjustments
               #4 exposed the highlight using my Pentax Digital spotmeter
                #3 exposed the shadows "   "   "     "    "
                #2 is the merges photos of three 

I am impressed with this program. In fact, I am going to leave my split neutral density filter home when I leave for China for landscape photography.

                               Bob- the slide shooter at heart
      PS: if you are wondering about the cord coming out from John Lennon, there is a light bulb in the back which gives him the " glowing effect."


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## duncan22 (Aug 17, 2009)

Agree with previous comments Photomatix is an excellent program.
I also purchased 'A Complete guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography' by Ferrell McCollough from Amazon for under £12 (free P&P in the UK)
The book gives examples of HDR Photographs taken with various HDR software (some free) but the focus is on Photomatix.
It's worth a look if you are just starting out in HRD photography.


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## Robert T Higaki (Aug 18, 2009)

Thank Duncan22 for the book recommendation. I will definitely buy one.

 The only situation I can think of where this program will not work is if you have a moving object in the scene like this:
Here, I shot this at Upper Waterton Lake standing next to Prince of Wales Hotel( Alberta, Canada). There is a man in a canoe going across the lake. So, if I were to take three or more shots, the canoe would be totally out of alignment with respect to the rest of the scene.
I have only six days experience with this program. Do you guys concur with my statement? Over all, I am really happy with this software. Now, I can shoot at mid-day and not worry about the harsh shadows- granted if it does not move.

                                  Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## happycranker (Aug 18, 2009)

Yes, generally the subject should be static when taking HDR which is why in my original post I talked about alignment issues when handholding, even things moving in the wind like trees, grass etc can be a problem. I always use the highest frame advance speed, but you will still have long exposures depending on the light. With your scenario you could remove the blurred person in Photoshop and add a single frame as another layer on top of the HDR.


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## sizzlingbadger (Aug 18, 2009)

[quote author=Robert T Higaki link=topic=7368.msg51862#msg51862 date=125'5612'6]
 The only situation I can think of where this program will not work is if you have a moving object in the scene like this:
[/quote]

It's referred to as 'ghosting' in HDR speak, it can look quite artistic sometimes !


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## Robert T Higaki (Jul 28, 2009)

I got off the phone with a friend in LA. He suggested this product called Photomatix for shooting high contrast situations. I want take advantage of this forum to reach out to more people and get more opinions on this product.

                         Bob- the slide shooter at heart


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## johnbeardy (Aug 18, 2009)

One of Russell Brown's recent performances is fake HDR on moving objects. It's very fake, but interesting.

John


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## T.D. (Sep 4, 2009)

I, too, am quite happy with Photomatix Pro. It's easy to use and can produce nice results.


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 4, 2009)

I bought it this week after playing with the trial for a few weeks.

I think the trick is to make sure what you are photographing has very high contrast, I know that sounds obvious but it's surprising how many times I've tried HDR and found the original scene looked better in a single raw file because there wasn't enough contrast to take full advantage of HDR.

I guess when you are playing with something new you also tend to try it on anything and everything to see what happens :icon_biggrin: 
I've also found that masking the Tone Mapped HDR with one of the original files in Photoshop can get some nice results too.

The biggest issue I have is noise, LR & Photoshop don't quite get rid of the noise that is produced during the HDR process so I may have to invest in yet another product. I have found that applying noise reduction on the images before exporting to Photomatix helps a fair bit even if the original images aren't noisy.


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## malart (Sep 10, 2009)

[quote author=sizzlingbadger link=topic=7368.msg5286'#msg5286' date=1252'957'5]
I bought it this week after playing with the trial for a few weeks.

I think the trick is to make sure what you are photographing has very high contrast, I know that sounds obvious but it's surprising how many times I've tried HDR and found the original scene looked better in a single raw file because there wasn't enough contrast to take full advantage of HDR.

I guess when you are playing with something new you also tend to try it on anything and everything to see what happens :icon_biggrin: 
I've also found that masking the Tone Mapped HDR with one of the original files in Photoshop can get some nice results too.

The biggest issue I have is noise, LR & Photoshop don't quite get rid of the noise that is produced during the HDR process so I may have to invest in yet another product. I have found that applying noise reduction on the images before exporting to Photomatix helps a fair bit even if the original images aren't noisy.
[/quote]

You are right about the noise but I always run the original through Noiseware Pro and don't find noise to be much of an issue doing it this way. I really like to varying degrees of result I get with Photomatix


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 11, 2009)

One of my early experiments (probably a bit over done to be honest but I quite like that look now)


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## theturninggate (Sep 13, 2009)

I have a different take on Photomatix Pro. I do not think it's a great program. Not at all. I think it's a great technology, but I think the application has the clunkiest, most obnoxious user-interface of any HDR software I've tried. That said, I use it sometimes. Here's one I did with it and had in my graduating portfolio at Hallmark Institute of Photography:







My issues have nothing to do with the end output; it's possible to get fantastic images out of Photomatix, and it gives you a lot of control. But teh application is clunky and slow. The refresh rate on images is awful, especially when you're used to working in Lightroom or Photoshop, and receive live feedback on slider adjustments.

The tone mapping controls have very obtuse names, and it's difficult to know what is going on as you adjust the sliders. Because the names give you very little indication what the sliders do, and there's no live feedback, it feels kind of like a crap shoot every time you make an adjustment.

John Paul Caponigro had an excellent article in Digital Photo Pro earlier this year that explained each slider. It was an excellent article, something like a Photomatix bible, and I like to keep it beside me for reference when I work with the application. It's funny, though, because Photomatix is the ONLY application I use where I constantly feel like I need that "Bible" at my side. For me, that speaks volumes to the application's lack of intuitive usability. There's nothing intuitive about it. In this day and age, I've come to expect from from a user interface.

Performance-wise, though, Photomatix still outstrips Adobe's HDR implementation in Photoshop. What I really wish would happen is that Adobe would buy out Photomatix and implement the processing technology into Photoshop and Lightroom. That would be incredible.

An alternative worth keeping an eye on for Mac users is Hydra. It's not quite on the same level as Photomatix yet for image making, but when it comes to user interface and ease of use, Hydra runs circles around Photomatix. If Adobe isn't going to buy Photomatix out, I wish the Hydra people would ... Somewhere in the grey area between Photomatix and Hydra, I'm convinced is the perfect HDR application. We just haven't seen it yet.

I'm told there's a Lightroom plugin for Hydra in the pipeline as well, so that's something I'm looking forward to.


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## topanga (Sep 13, 2009)

I agree, the interface is not user friendly and it operates at clunky most times. But, what else is out there that comes close to its abilities? It would be absolutely wonderful if Adobe did purchase and support it for LR and PS.


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 13, 2009)

I would agree with the interface comments, but I find the performance and refresh quite reasonable, especially if you consider the amount of processing that's going on under the covers.

John Paul Caponigro - Photomatix link
http://www.digitalphotopro.com/business/xdr-part-v.html


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## topanga (Sep 13, 2009)

Thanks for the article link!


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## theturninggate (Sep 13, 2009)

Nice work finding that article link, sizzlingbadger. I had Googled for it, but failed.

You're running Snow Leopard; seriously, check out the demo for Hydra. Then come back and tell me Photomatix can't do better on processing and refresh.


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 13, 2009)

I downloaded Hydra but haven't installed it yet, I plan to try it out though it looks pretty good if the website examples are anything to go by.


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 14, 2009)

quick and dirty comparison of Hydra / Photomatix. First impressions are pretty good. The image is cleaner and sharper from Hydra but it is quite difficult to tone map in Hydra as the controls are very sensitive. The UI is certainly better designed, it mimics the Aperture interface. It will take some playing about to get good results. I used 3 dng images 2 stops apart to test. Photomatix renders the dng images better initially but Hydra does have some RAW controls that once tweaked look good and also allow sharpening. The alignment stage in Hydra allows you to choose the alignment points in the image which is very useful. I will need more time to make a better judgment but overall I think it's a good app and with the right development may be a favourite. The images below were resized in PS. The Photomatix image was also sharpened as it doesn't do that as part of it's process.

I think it may be better to use LR / ACR to process the RAW files first and get them rendered correctly etc... then export TIF files to these HDR applications (this is how the plug-ins normally behave)


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## jandarmor (Sep 18, 2009)

Works great... a gentle hand is advised...


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## Jeroen (Sep 23, 2009)

[quote author=sizzlingbadger link=topic=7368.msg51375#msg51375 date=1249953845]
I think there is a learning curve to producing good results though. [/quote]

It does :icon_neutral: It took me some while to get the pictures in "naturual colors"; 

I'm a happy costomer works fine with lightroom; I used it for a book about a church;

an example:
[img width=399 height=6'']http://www.jeroeneck.nl/hetfotoforum/overig/jeck2''8'724-9'7.jpg[/img]


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## sizzlingbadger (Sep 23, 2009)

Nice work !  getting that "HDR look" is easy but getting natural looking images like yours is much harder.


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