HDR Efex Pro

JessicaMorgan · Feb 17, 2011

I used the trial and thought it was great, but wanted to know what others thought compared to the other programs available. Are there any limits or downsides of the HDR Efex Pro software?

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Jessica Morgan

Will Kaiser · Feb 17, 2011

First of fall, I love it; its given me more enjoyment and motivation to work with post-processing than I've had in years. Its motivated me to re-visit some of favorites from the thousands of RAW photos I've saved over the years, and create what to me are exciting retouching. It works very well with single images as well as with bracketed multiple images. It has so many powerful controls that it has a steep learning curve to get the most out of it.

Second, because of how powerful it is, it requires cutting edge computer power. It only currently works with 64 bit Photoshop and virtually requires heavy RAM capacity (I'm usiing 9G on a PC and for the first time other than benchmarking programs, I believe it could use more).
NIK's frequent and free webinar live tutorials are amazing and useful.

Finally, its really taught me that in shooting photos, composition is priority one; the rest can be manipulated, but other than cropping, composition is fixed.

Below are a couple multiple image (3) bracketed HDRs that I shot at my beach house yesterday.

JBP · Feb 17, 2011

I'm still not happy with it, not realistic enough for my needs. There doesn't seem to be a way to reduce the halo effect around windows, as seen in the interior shot of the beach house. For critical work I'm still better off masking in PhotoShop and layering exposures.
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35 to 4 x 5 - NPS Member

Alpha Doug · Feb 17, 2011

No, actually, if you play around with the sliders, and not just the presets, you will find that there are tools and mapping algorithms that will help reduce artifacts, and you can achieve anything from a very natural look to a highly stylized surreal effect. I have been using Photomatix Pro for several years as my go-to program, and while it has many controls, found it hard to figure out how to get specific effects. I have also experimented with HDR-Expose which has some nice interface and algorithm enhancements. But HDR Efex Pro has impressed me with it's flexibility. I use it as a plugin in Aperture and Lightroom as well as a plugin in Photoshop CS5. I have never liked the built in HDR processing in Photoshop. Even the new HDR Pro is underpowered compared to third party software.

I am running all this on a 4 year old MacBook Pro, 2.4ghz Core2Duo processor, with 4 gigs of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 8600m GT graphcs card with 256mb of VRAM. Not especially the latest and greatest, and I do not experience any real slowdowns using any of the latest HDR processing programs. I'm running OS X 10.6.6 which is fully 64 bit, and both AP3 and LR3 run in 64 bit. I'm actually running Photoshop in 32 bit mode because of some of the older plugins I have, but HDR Efex Pro runs just fine from within CS5. When you invoke the plugin, it appears to send a copy of the file for processing into the outboard program then save it back into CS5 after editing.

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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

JessicaMorgan · Feb 17, 2011

Great feedback! I am using a macbook as well and the trial seems great. I tried many of the free trials out there like Enfuse and Photomatix Pro, but the HDR Efex has been the only one that worked and actually allowed me to really play with my images. Now to save up and make the investment!
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Jessica Morgan

Brian D. Schneider · Feb 17, 2011

JessicaMorgan said:
Great feedback! I am using a macbook as well and the trial seems great. I tried many of the free trials out there like Enfuse and Photomatix Pro, but the HDR Efex has been the only one that worked and actually allowed me to really play with my images. Now to save up and make the investment!
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Jessica Morgan

I really like it compared to Photomatix, it's easier to get the effect I want although I still use PM for the ocaisional picture.
BTW you can get 15% of by using the coupon code "STUCKINCUSTOMS"
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-efex-pro-review/
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Brian Schneider

Alpha Doug · Feb 17, 2011

If you are a student, or you know a student or teacher who have credentials and would buy it for you, you can buy the educational version (full version) for $79.

JessicaMorgan said:
Great feedback! I am using a macbook as well and the trial seems great. I tried many of the free trials out there like Enfuse and Photomatix Pro, but the HDR Efex has been the only one that worked and actually allowed me to really play with my images. Now to save up and make the investment!
--
Jessica Morgan

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

JessicaMorgan · Feb 17, 2011

Thank you so much! I will be using that coupon!
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Jessica Morgan

JessicaMorgan · Feb 17, 2011

Yay! I am a student!
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Jessica Morgan

Vernon D Rainwater · Feb 17, 2011

JessicaMorgan said:
Yay! I am a student!
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Jessica Morgan

Refer to the following link:
B&H has it priced at $79.99

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=732042&Q=&is=REG&A=details
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Vernon...

JBP · Feb 17, 2011

Believe me I've tried and as good as it is it's not better than masking and layering, unfortunately. I'm currently in discussions with Nik to see what they can do to create an algorithm or settings that can do the job.

Alpha Doug said:
No, actually, if you play around with the sliders, and not just the presets, you will find that there are tools and mapping algorithms that will help reduce artifacts, and you can achieve anything from a very natural look to a highly stylized surreal effect. I have been using Photomatix Pro for several years as my go-to program, and while it has many controls, found it hard to figure out how to get specific effects. I have also experimented with HDR-Expose which has some nice interface and algorithm enhancements. But HDR Efex Pro has impressed me with it's flexibility. I use it as a plugin in Aperture and Lightroom as well as a plugin in Photoshop CS5. I have never liked the built in HDR processing in Photoshop. Even the new HDR Pro is underpowered compared to third party software.

I am running all this on a 4 year old MacBook Pro, 2.4ghz Core2Duo processor, with 4 gigs of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 8600m GT graphcs card with 256mb of VRAM. Not especially the latest and greatest, and I do not experience any real slowdowns using any of the latest HDR processing programs. I'm running OS X 10.6.6 which is fully 64 bit, and both AP3 and LR3 run in 64 bit. I'm actually running Photoshop in 32 bit mode because of some of the older plugins I have, but HDR Efex Pro runs just fine from within CS5. When you invoke the plugin, it appears to send a copy of the file for processing into the outboard program then save it back into CS5 after editing.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

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35 to 4 x 5 - NPS Member

krollins · Feb 17, 2011

Or, you can spend $149 and get the Nik Complete Collection with the academic discount. In addition to HDR Efex Pro, it would also give you Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, Color Efex Pro, Dfine, and Sharpener Pro. All really wonderful and useful packages that I have found make editing so much more fun!

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