Good thing that if you bought Photomatix 4.2 or later, you get the Photomatix pro 5 for free. There are also a couple of new processing algorithms, but they are targeted to a different group than the more creative HDR photographers.īut for the more creative side this version is a more or less 1:1 with the old Photomatix 4. There are number of usability improvements in the software, which really makes it easier to use, and some improvements in some of the more automatic parts of the software, like deghosting and auto aligning. I had also hoped for the loop feature to do a perfect processing, so that you would see the real deal, but that is still very poor.Ĭonclusion of a preliminary review of Photomatix Pro 5 beta 4 Of course there are other ways of handling the noise, would just have been nice if the algorithm had been better at handling noise. One of the weaker points in Photomatix Pro is the noise it produces. I have tried to process images with both Photomatix Pro 4 and Photomatix Pro 5 beta 4, with the exact same settings and the images are identical. I had hoped for more fun and creative options, but got disappointed on that. In fact the Details enhancer does exactly the same as before. Luminosity has changed to Tone Compression, but it does exactly the same. The details enhancer has got a single change. So I’m stuck with the Fusion/Natural and Tone Mapping/Details Enhancer. The fusion also got an ‘Fusion/Real estate’ optimized for images to show both interior and the outside for real estate photographers.
The ‘Contrast Optimizer’ is great for natural looking images, but is not worth much for more creative processing. Tone mapping has got a ‘Contrast optimizer’ method in addition to the Details Enhancer and the Tone Compressor: I might give it a try or two, but basically I think you get a better result using by blending one of the source image in using layered masks in Photoshop or GIMP.Ī couple of new processing methods has been added. The deghosting as been changed too and is better. I have never really had any problem with the one from Photomatix 4 – but improvements of course is good. The algorithm for aligning images should be improved, but that is fairly hard to test. The Button “Process” has been changed to “Apply and Finish”. There are a couple of others of these wordings that has changed for the better. Straight talk for normal human beings to understand, not engineer talk that only a small group of people can understand. I’m a great fan of usability and this is great usability in it’s essence. For instance instead of calling a feature ‘Align source image – by correcting vertical and horizontal shifts’ it gets a lot easier to understand from the new wording: ‘Align source images – Taken on tripod’.
#PHOTOMATIX PRO 4 VS 5 SOFTWARE#
By using the right words you can do a lot for the ease of use of a software program. The wording – that is the usability – has changed in general to the better. After having played around with for a awhile I am a bit disappointed, but there are a few goodies too. The official beta 4 is now available and I have had a quick glance at it. Some of you might have noticed that a new version of Photomatix Pro 5 is on its way. I did use a final filter High Key from Topaz Adjust to get the more pseuchedelic look. The Long exposure I made using my 10 stop ND filter from B+W. Thanks.London Tower Bridge – a 5 shot HDR photo processed with Photomatix Pro 5 beta 4 and then mixed with a long exposure image for the fountain and the clouds. Also, please share any experience with the 2 software packages. Please offer your comments, critiques and preferences between the images. Nik is starting to grow on me and my wife chose images processed in Nik over Photomatix twice so there may be something to it. Nik's defaults for B&W are not very good but I found that you can get a great B&W HDR image by processing it in Nik and then converting it in LR3. From an interface and control standpoint I like Nik better. I find it depends on the image, some images look better in one while other images look better in the other software. At first I really did not like the Nik results and much preferred those from Photomatix.
#PHOTOMATIX PRO 4 VS 5 TRIAL#
I am using trials versions for both, as I am new to HDR, so the Photomatix output images have watermarks, Nik is nice enough to export clean non-watermarked images in their trial version. I am hoping for some thoughts on some images processed using the new Nik HDR Efex Pro and Photomatix Pro 4.