Butterfly Photo Fun - Photomatix vs Dynamic Photo HDR

Here are some pretty butterfly pics from my latest photo experiments comparing Photomatix to Dynamic Photo HDR.

Inspired by the work of Lois Bryan, a wonderful photographer whose work I greatly admire, I scoured the Internet looking for the right software to enhance my own photographic style. 

Free is always good:) - so I downloaded the free trial version from Photomatix and the HDR program from mediachance called Dynamic Photo HDR. You can download either for free to play with as long as you like - no expiration.

While Photomatix is a fine program I decided to purchase the Dynamic Photo HDR, see my five reasons at the end of this post.

 

These images were created in Photo Dynamic HDR

from one jpg photo

 in what they call pseudo-HDR

plus 

using a number of different photo manipulation tools.

 

I thought it was all rather fun and definitely cool. None of this has anything to do with the more complicated full HDR process which I have not fully mastered yet, but

meanwhile, here you have my newest photo experiments:  

 

 

Love the way the butterfly pics turned out

a bit more tweaking

and this one will be ready

to become a greeting card or canvas or print

at my new website - click here - for a look.

 

 

One of the bennies of this Photo Dynamic HDR program

is all the little extras buried in it, which don't have a thing to do with HDR and are surprisingly userfriendly.

I haven't discovered everything yet, but I tried for a soft watercolor feel and after some experimentation came up with the image below.

I can see this on the wall,

printed on fine art paper with a nice frame, sweet:)

 

 

I'm not a big fan of black and white,

but I rather like

this soft little rendition.

 

If you like dramatic clouds this program will do it for you - if - you have plenty of clouds in your photo already.

This is not a one click program and it is not suitable for all photos, there is a learning curve if you have never worked with any editing programs before.

I do like a little drama in my photos:)

 

... but, a subtle approach and learning to show restraint

is just as important to me.

The full HDR program lets you be as over the top surreal or incredibly subtle, yet sublimely effective as you like.

 

Anyway,

the real purpose of this program - which I have not shown here

is to work in a full HDR program from raw files (not jpg like I used), by bracketing several images, then tonal mapping to create one photo, then move on to other post editing of your image in your regular editing program.

  

  My five reasons

why I chose to purchase this Photo Dynamic HDR software by www.mediachance.com 

over Photomatix (which is undeniably a popular and excellent HDR program)

1. I found it easier to navigate
2. The results equal those obtained with Photomatix
3. Better price - $99 vs $55
4. I liked the free add on features, they work perfect with my photographic style.
5. A big plus for me was the one photo jpeg pseudo-HDR. It is not only fun to work with, but produced astounding results.

 

I hope you enjoyed the photo fun - try it, you might like it:)

All images copyright 2010 © Rose Hill