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Photomatix

By Cheryl Johnson

Industry Observer

September 13, 2007 01:28 PM

Wow. I mean, really, wow! Did I say Wow? I haven't got this excited over a piece of software for a long time. But, Bryce Mohan gave us a look at one of his secret weapons, Photomatix.

I was going to write a Beginner's tutorial on using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) function in Photoshop CS3.

But based on Bryce's recommendation, I downloaded and installed Photomatix. (Free trial download, then $99.00 to register) I think I like it. Alot. Give me a few days to play with it, then I'll report back.

I'm a registered owner/user of Photoshop CS3. I also own/use Photoshop Elements 5. This might be heresy, but I could see an agent/property photographer getting by with Elements($72.99) plus Photomatix($99.00) instead of Photoshop CS3($629.99)

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Bob Carney

Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales - Mc Henry, MD

Licensed MD/PA Real Estate Agent

HDR photos are some of the wildest photos out there... I didn't know the software until you mentioned it...

Here is Flickr's pool for Photomatix. and here is the HDR pool I can spend hours in there looking at these photos. Now this is really going to make me get a Nikon D80 or something like it.

BTW...hi.

Sep 13, 2007 01:48 PM

Dwayne West

Atlanta Real Estate - Canton, GA

Canton Georgia Real Estate

It is great to see nice posts like this. Good job, and keep up the good work.

Dwayne West "Your Alpharetta Georgia Real Estate professionals"

Sep 13, 2007 01:57 PM

Gail MacMillan

Titusville, FL

Picture the nodding head (it's late and too tired to find a noddy headed gif ;-) - so we'll wait for the thumbs up. Don't forget to include the learning curve for the moderately gifted. Did I ever tell you that you have one of the cutest pictures around? You're a clever one CJ - rock on!

Sep 13, 2007 02:07 PM

Mary Pope-Handy

Christie's International Real Estate Sereno - Los Gatos, CA

CRS, CIPS, ABR, SRES, Silicon Valley

Sounds like a good deal. I want thorough and easy (not like my old, old photo deluxe!) Thanks Cheryl!!

Sep 13, 2007 04:43 PM

Linda Reynolds

Bradenton Real Estate - Linda Reynolds - Bradenton, FL

Bradenton Real Estate

Keep us posted, I will be interested to hear your opinion of the software. I haven't bought Photoshop yet, was waiting a bit to see if something cheaper would do the trick. You just might have the solution for me.

Sep 14, 2007 12:07 AM

Billnulls Blog Florida Realty Professional

Charles Rutenberg Realty - Clearwater, FL

AHWD

ok - time to check this out!

Sep 14, 2007 01:08 AM

Anonymous

Markus

I've been using Photomatix Pro for a few months now. It's a great piece of software for creating stunning HDR's. It's just $85 (instead of $99) if you use coupon code VPG15 (via http://www.visualphotoguide.com/photomatix-coupon-code/). Once you get the controls down, it gets easier to use every time.

Sep 14, 2007 03:19 AM

I took a look at Photomatix - big WOW factor in the way the pictures look. Now if I can just figure out how to use the bracketing feature on my Canon G5 :-(

Sep 14, 2007 04:03 AM

Maureen Maureen

Orangeburg, NY

Cheryl - can't wait to get the full review. I do have Photoshop element 4 but sometimes it is just too much for what I want to do. And I can't seem to remember where everything is.

Sep 14, 2007 12:35 PM

Dale Baker

Baker Energy Audits and Commercial Properties Inspections - Claremont, NH

New Hampshire Relocation Real Estate Information

Howdy Cheryl

Thank you I will check out Photomatix.

Let know your opinion of it.

Have a good one

Sep 15, 2007 07:17 AM

George Sheldon

George Sheldon Photographer - Lancaster, PA

Photomatix is a great program! It is easy to use. The tone mapping is great. Make sure your three images were captured while you were using a tripod.

Sep 16, 2007 02:03 PM

Janie Coffey

First Coast Sotheby’s International Realty - Ponte Vedra, FL

Uniting Extraordinary Homes w/ Extraordinary Lives

looking forward to hear about it!

Sep 16, 2007 10:47 PM

Tracy Santrock

Santrock Realty Group Inc. , - Cary, NC

Raleigh - Cary Broker

These tools look fantastic. I must be missing the creative eye. I buy them and then nothing turns out like the advertisements. I'll keep trying.

Sep 18, 2007 05:42 AM

Ted Baker

Carmody and Associates LLC - Winter Haven, FL

MidFloridaMediation.com

Cheryl - I will look forward to your more detailed evaluation.

It looks like this would be an excellent situation to use the auto-bracketing function on many of the D-SLR's that provides 3 exposures for each press of the trigger - your current settings, one step up and one step down on exposure. As I have written about the merits of the Nikon D-40 as an entry level D-SLR, now may be a good time to mention that the auto-bracketing feature is one of the features we gave up for the price point.

Sep 18, 2007 04:49 PM

Cheryl Johnson

Highland Park, CA

Ted - I have been so swamped with stuff-to-do in the offline world, I haven't had a good chance to work with Photomatic yet. From what little time I have spent on it, I see, as George suggested, that a tripod is a very good idea, since the positioning of objects in the images pretty much needs to match up in each image, unless you like ghosts -- like this:

Oops. (You can stop giggling now, Bryce) However, I can see that the tone quality of final result will be quite pleasing. This was done using Combine -> Highlight & Shadows, rather than HDR -> Generate.

Ted -- Yes using photos shot with auto-bracketing makes a lot of sense. Auto-bracketed images were NOT used in my ghostly sample, nor was a tripod, and as you see, I moved around a bit between snapping the shots.

Sep 18, 2007 10:34 PM

Joyce Heffner-Williams

Keller Williams Clients' Choice Realty - Monument, CO

Owner/Broker/EcoBroker - Monument Real Estate

Never messed with Photoshop much. With digital photography I can almost always get the shot right while shooting.

Looks like a great program and I will check it out...

Sep 21, 2007 03:00 AM

Atlanta Houses

thanks for your efforts

Dec 04, 2008 10:03 PM

#17

Discounted Houses

thanks

Dec 04, 2008 10:08 PM

#18

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