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So far, I've tried software like luminance, bracket and fotoxx. While bracket is very fast to make the openEXR images, luminance is good with tonemapping tools, but I'd like to try some more options. What do you guys use?

And in terms of options, how good are these programs compared to the ones in other platforms like photomatix?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ See also: superuser.com/questions/20242/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 4:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ I recently started exploring fotoxx. Great results with minimal manipulations! \$\endgroup\$
    – twan163
    Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 11:05

4 Answers 4

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Hugin and panotools can be used to make HDR images.
Here is a nice tutorial from Edu Perez
And here is a tutorial from the panotools wiki

I can't answer the comparison part of your question because I have not made those comparisons.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Ahh, I thought that Hugin could only create panroamas, but not. That tutorial is great! And now I've found out that you can even create HDR panoramas. I've sub-estimated Hugin. Great tool! \$\endgroup\$
    – tomm89
    Commented Oct 16, 2010 at 20:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 hugin is a great open source tool for sticking, panoramas, and even HDR. \$\endgroup\$
    – Abhinav
    Commented Oct 18, 2010 at 13:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm playing with the hugin_hdrmerge's khan algorithm. Does anybody know what that algorithm exactly does? \$\endgroup\$
    – tomm89
    Commented Oct 18, 2010 at 22:02
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    \$\begingroup\$ s/sub-estimated/underestimated/ \$\endgroup\$
    – Jared Updike
    Commented Oct 22, 2010 at 18:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JaredUpdike What is Perl doing on Photo.SE? :P \$\endgroup\$
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Commented Jan 10, 2012 at 5:01
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I prefer contrast/exposure blending to “real” HDR. It gives similar effect without sacrificing the natural look of the image.

Use enfuse to run it from the command line. Hugin can run it too. digiKam has a plugin for exposure blending. See Exposure blending with digiKam.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I've tried enfuse. It is great! \$\endgroup\$
    – tomm89
    Commented Oct 23, 2010 at 4:09
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Since I've learn some things from the time I asked this question, I'm gonna answer myself and show you a few examples.

I know, this is not HDR nor tone-mapped HDR photos, but I want to show you the great results you can get using exposure fusion.

Please, don't judge the photos, I just want to show you the differences in shadows/lights.

This is what I've done:

  • Using the "hole scene" light metering, I changed the shutter speed till I got 0EV
  • With shutter speed bracketing, I took 5 photos with stops of +/- 2EV (0, -2, +2, -4, +4)
  • In my Arch Linux box, I used the enfuse tool and merge the 5 images to just 1.

These are some results:

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Very effective, well done. \$\endgroup\$
    – labnut
    Commented Oct 27, 2010 at 7:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ Links are broken. \$\endgroup\$
    – mpe
    Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 13:27
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I enjoy using Luminace-HDR:

  • Nice GUI

  • good use of Exif

  • allows you to continue if Exif data is missing

  • takes advantage of Hugin tools

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I was about to answer QtPFSGui, then I realised that they changed the name xD \$\endgroup\$
    – fortran
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 9:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ When I briefly tried it, I had the impression tat Luminance HDR is more about achieving that special effect look than approximating how the human eye perceives a high contrast scene. Did you use it successfully to create realistic looking photos, or do you only use it for the 'effect'? \$\endgroup\$
    – Szabolcs
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 13:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm trying for exposure compensation instead of effect. I honestly haven't finished my first successful project in it yet because I picked out some...pretty bad photos to start with, sorry. I do like the interface and my first impressions of it, though. \$\endgroup\$
    – memnoch_proxy
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 18:01

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