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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> AURORA HDR for Mac - Anybody using?
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 01/25/2016 09:41:30 PM · #1
Have downloaded the program to play with. Can't export on the trial version.
Anybody using it?
Thoughts?

I have Topaz but thinking this looks good for bracketed shots.

Aurora HDR

Message edited by author 2016-01-25 21:42:55.
 01/26/2016 10:24:50 AM · #2
Have you tried the HDR in Lightroom?

Take your three or more shots, combine them, and you get a DNG RAW that's 32 bit. Then you can apply your regular processing. It's the most natural HDR youll find.

(Photomatix has a plugin for LR that combines files into a 32 bit HDR as well. But the advantage of the LR version is basically it's still a RAW file...you can still do things that don't work well on cooked files, like change color balance.)

I do want to try the Aurora version though, at least to see if I like the various processed looks. I guess I could try on my Macbook Air laptop, but my desktop is a PC!

ETA: To me the advantage of the LR version is this. I often bracket, just in case, and because it's easy to do so. But then you have 3 shots for every picture. Deciding which to use is another issue, if you don't do HDR. But with LR, all you need to do is select all three, press Shift-H, and it combines them into one 32 bit depth DNG. I mark the three originals for deletion, without even looking...LR is that good at it. Now, I have one file, and when I get ready to process, I can use that. I have backups of the shoot anyway, so should I need to go back to the original, I can do that (plus, the original is only marked for deletion and hidden by the view filter until I do a purge of those files marked for deletion.) But now my shoot is "uncluttered" with the bracketed shots.

The downside of this is that LR does not YET have a way to just batch the whole shoot, creating the HDR DNG (and otherwise unprocessed) original. You can do about 7 at a time if you have a good processor, but LR tries to do them all at once, rather than just queueing them. So it's drags the machine down. I suspect soon, if they are listening to the many customers who have asked for it in the LR forum, they will either queue them up properly, or allow a whole folder at a time to be "processed", without selecting them one at a time.


Message edited by author 2016-01-26 10:33:39.
 01/26/2016 11:41:40 AM · #3
I have used it for a number of HDRs lately.

I don't have lightroom, so I can't talk to that. But I do have Nik HDR Efex Pro, and used that for a number of years. I feel I'm pretty efficient with the Nik stuff.

Aurora has blown my Nik processing out of the water. So much more control. Way better/more realistic results.
Especially when it comes to shadow areas. It's hard to make those look correct in Nik, but with Aurora it's pretty simple.

The only downsides to me right now are that it's expensive and kind of slow (takes a while to do the initial processing).
 01/26/2016 11:46:52 AM · #4
I got a trial copy and my biggest beef is that only the Pro version will work with Raw files. Sure, I can create TIFF's first but with Lr and HDR Efex Pro I don't have to. There also doesn't seem to be any de-ghosting in the non-Pro version.

I'm with Neil in that I'm very satisfied with the HDR Merge functionality in Lightroom. No, you don't get the presets that you get with a package like this, but if you're used to working in Photoshop there's a lot you can do with the big DNG file you get to work with.
 01/26/2016 03:52:06 PM · #5
Thanks for the imput.

Is HDR only available in Lightroom cc or in 6 also? I'm currently running LR5.
Sounds like this might work well for me as I have topaz for effects when I want them and like the idea of a combined raw file.

Thanks

Message edited by author 2016-01-26 15:55:59.
 01/26/2016 04:19:56 PM · #6
Originally posted by RamblinR:
Thanks for the imput.

Is HDR only available in Lightroom cc or in 6 also? I'm currently running LR5.
Sounds like this might work well for me as I have topaz for effects when I want them and like the idea of a combined raw file.

Thanks


I have cc but apparently it's in 6 as well: https://photographylife.com/creating-an-hdr-panorama-with-lightroom-6
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