I began using Photomatix recently and like it, but was interested in checking out Picturenaut after reading some recent posts suggesting that it seems to create more natural color and overall rendition as compared to Photomatix, although these are very subjective qualities.

Photomatix HDR images open OK into PSE 7, but after processing files in Picturenaut and saving them, they will not open into PSE 7. A window pops up and says that PSE 7 does not support HDR, only CS2 versions and higher.

Not sure why PSE 7 interprets Photomatix images as non-HDR = OK but Picturenaut ones as HDR = not viewable.

Any ideas? Couldn't find help in Picturenaut lit.

Here is an image I processed thru Photomatix of a dark woodshed (ceiling was much darker than naturally-illuminated floor and foreground logs). 5fps burst one stop apart with tripod-mounted D300 and 16-85mm VR(switched off), 1/4sec, variable aperture, timer. Too surreal?

Regards and Happy New Year to all Nikonians,

Peter

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

I cannot help you with an answer to your question, but I can tell you that you did a good job with this image.

Thanks for sharing.

Mike

I'm no help either but I also like this shot! I'd love to get some of that wood too but not for burning!

yours,
Reilly

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

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Hi Peter,

Not too surreal at all. It's a really good image. I would not want to strike a match in there though! Well done.

Cheers

Steve (Bedfordshire, England)
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A Nikon in the hand is worth two in the bag!

I'm only guessing here - HDR is still very new to me too, and I haven't used Picturenaut yet but how have you been saving your images from Photomatix ?

Is it possible your saving them as LDR (Low Dynamic Range)- ie reduced to 8/16 bit after tonemapping ? PSE or PS-CS would be able to handle them just fine - as they wouldn't be differentiated from any other 8 bit image (not tagged as HDR).

Or are you saving them as Radiance RGB files prior to tonemapping (a true HDR format)

Maybe the images from Picturenaut are specific HDR files ? - 32bit ?

As I say just a guess - and probably way off track.

Very nice shot:- ideally suited to HDR, I could waste a whole afternoon in a shed like that

Martin


EDIT:

I ahve just downloaded Picturenaut - and tried it out with a few TIFFs.

I can open the resultant HDR file (32bit) in PS CS2 without a problem, not sure on PSE though ?

Thanks for the comments on the woodshed pic.

Thanks, Martin, for your input regarding my problem with Picturenaut. So far, I have only used images uploaded from my D300 into PSE 7 as 8-bit Adobe/RGB Jpegs for HDR work. I've only been experimenting with HDr and the software for a week or so. I suspect your observation that the 32-bit files coming out of Picturenaut may be the issue, but my rudimentary cyber-savvyness has prevented me from determining why PSE 7 won't allow them because I haven't identified any data on the HDR images I've built in Picturenaut. If I shot them and moved them to Picturenaut as just 8-bit Jpegs, could Picturenaut process them as something higher than 8-bit. I'm guessing not, but I don't know. All I know for sure is that the same images that Photomatix accepts and then sends back readable in PSE 7 appear to be processed in Picturenaut but then can not be opened in PSE 7 when saved from Picturenaut.

Oh, well.

Regards,

Peter

Greetings Peter,

Just a guess here but I have played with Picturenaut a little and I think you have the choice of file output. I think the default is to output a 32bit file which may be whats causing the problem with PSE 7. Try lowering the file output to 16bit and see what happens.

Hi, Scott and thanks for the tip. The 32-bit file seems to have been the issue for me. Also, some of the saves were .crv files which were also a no-go in PSE7.

Overall, I like Photomatix more than Picturenaut, but if the novelty of Photomatix's artsy results wears off, I may change my mind on this. I find that Picturenaut requires more adjustment both in their settings and afterwards in Photoshop than does Pmatix - at least for me.

Regards,

Peter