What photo editor for Mac offers image filters with live previews, HDR composition and photo stitching?

Question

I am looking for a photo editor that offers to...

• ...choose filters by comparing live previews, not via contextual menus
• ...create panoramas by photo stitching
• ...create HDR images

I would be nice if the last two features are partially automized, requiring the user to get final result in just a few steps.

Can you recommend software for Mac OSX which has all of the features?

Answer 1

Its hard to choose a piece of software that comes close to what you want with all that under the bonnet and does it well...

The closest thing I can come up with is Adobe Photoshop with a commecial plugin Nik Software Color Efex Pro - Photoshop has a photo merge capability and a HDR capability with full automation via actions - not as good as specific standalone software.

But even still, I am combining a single piece of software and a plugin... not strictly one piece of software

I have had experience with Color Efex Pro and it is very good. But doesn't do anything you can't do with Photoshop if you know how. However It does give you a side by side preview of filters and effects, which I find very nice.

If it were me though, I would have seperate software

• Kolor AutoPano (for panoramas)
• PhotoMatix (for HDR)
• Adobe Photoshop (with Color Efex Pro) or Lightroom for post-pro

Answer 2

+1 for Adobe Photoshop.

1. Panoramas are easily created automatically
2. HDR too can be automatically created. Bonus: Can be created with single JPEG image too.
3. Lot of filters are present, not sure what your exact requirement is though.