SimpleHDRI SimpleHDRI - A software utility for manipulating photographs with High Dynamic Range Imaging techniques
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manipulate merge manipulate photo merge images HDRI technique HDRI

SimpleHDRI Description

SimpleHDRI - A software utility for manipulating photographs with High Dynamic Range Imaging techniques Simple HDRI is a utility for manipulating photographs with 'H'igh 'D'ynamic 'R'ange 'I'maging techniques. High Dynamic Range Images are photos created by superimposing multiple images of the same scene taken at different exposures to create an image with... well... more dynamic range. Basically what this means is that there is more information in the resulting image than the camera is normally capable of capturing. This gives an image with detail in the shadows and highlights as well as in the mid-tones.Now lets get this out of the way right now. This software does not create images to be save in any special HDRI format to be used in high end 3D graphics applications. Nor can it create HDRI images from your old normal images. The images saved from Simple HDRI are normal JPEGs, TIFFs or PNGs. However, the beauty of HDRI is that the extra dynamic range allows you to manipulate images without worrying about losing data. Simple HDRI was specifically designed for that purpose.You then can save the image with the HDRI colors mapped to regular 24 bit color. You get a final image that looks the way you want it, with detail in the shadows and highlights even after drastically adjusting the images color settings. If you do the same things to a normal range image, you end up with something that looks like a cartoon, or a sunset that has lines between the colors.Just because it is called "Simple" HDRI, does not mean it is not powerful, just that it is very easy to use. The trick with Simple HDRI is that you take up to five images of the same subject at different exposures from under exposed to over exposed. Then drag them into the program from the Finder or straight from iPhoto. Simple HDRI then combines them bringing out the details in both the shadows and highlights. You can then manipulate the images with the data from all of the images combined. You can change contrast, brightness, exposure, gamma, saturation, sharpness and white balance. These manipulations are done with the combined data so you will not lose quality like you would with a standard 24 bit photo.Simple HDRI is best used with a digital camera that supports automatic exposure bracketing, but you can do it manually as well.Also, Simple HDRI can be used to sum up to five images taken at the same exposure. This can be used to take a good picture even when there is not nearly enough light. Just take several pictures as good as you can get them, and load them into Simple HDRI, and use the Sum Images option. Instead of averaging the images, it will add up the pixel values making an image five times brighter than the camera could get notmally. Also, there are a couple of effects modes called Overlay and Screen.There is another side effect that comes by superimposing multiple images. That is noise reduction. All cameras, no matter how expensive, introduce a bit of grainyness into the image. Film did the same, and it is impossible to make a camera that does not have some noise. However the noise is always different between pictures. Putting several pictures into Simple HDRI, even if taken at the same exposure, will result in an imge with very little noise. I have even gone so far as to take 25 images of the same subject, combined them five at a time and then combined the five results. I discovered this was a bit ov overkill, but the result was stunning.There are a couple of gotcha's with HDRI Imaging. The most important is that you have to take the images on a tripod or other very stable surface. If you don't the superimposed image will not line up and you will see ghosting. The other is that your subject has to be very still for the same reason, although some interesting effects can be done like this. This means that if you try to take a set of pictures of a person, they have to try to be very still. This is not so bad if your camer automatically brackest exposures, but if they have to hold their breath while you manually make the settings changes, they may not be very happy about it.Requirements:· PowerPC G5 or Intel Processor· 256MB RAM· 128MB Video RamLimitations:· An unregistered copy will be limited to combining three images instead of five.· Also the unregistered version will be limited to manipulating only brightness and contrast.

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