Have you ever photographed a high contrast scene? If so, you know that even the best exposure gives you blown out highlights, or flat shadows, or both.
The solution is High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing:
› Take multiple photographs at varying exposure levels
› Merge the photos into an HDR image
› Adjust the settings to get the look you want: from natural-looking with Exposure Fusion to painterly or surreal with Tone Mapping
Photomatix Pro and Photomatix Essentials are stand-alone programs running on Windows and Mac OS X.
One license for Photomatix Essentials costs US$39 and one license for Photomatix Pro US$99.
Photomatix Essentials focuses on simplicity and easy of use. Photomatix Pro offers more option and includes advanced features such as batch processing and selective deghosting, as well as a Lightroom Plug-in.
Some of the features of Photomatix are also available as an Edit Plug-in of Aperture and a Filter Plug-in of Photoshop CS2 or higher. A free Lightroom Plug-in makes it possible to access Photomatix Pro directly from Lightroom, if desired.