The Ohanaware Weblog
Getting Started with HDRtist, Mac OS X HDR Free Software
Welcome to the HDRtist Getting Started Tutorial. The first section is how to use HDRtist with multiple exposures. If you’ve just asked what multiple exposures are, or would like to know how to take multiple exposures; you should read Taking Photos for HDR.
The second section will show you how to create a pseudo HDR from a single image or single photo. It’s called a pseudo HDR, Fake HDR or FHDR, because you’re getting the HDR look without using multiple exposures. More information can be found in the Taking Photos for HDR.
Multiple Exposures or Multiple Photos
- The first step is to load some photos into HDRtist. There’s a bunch of ways to do this. You can drag photos from iPhoto or Finder into the HDRtist window, or you can use the "Add Photos…" toolbar button to select the photos. Personally I prefer to drag them from iPhoto into HDRtist. For this tutorial I’m going to use 3 different exposures of a beach scene, if you don’t have multiple exposures you can use a single photo in the mean time, and later read the tutorial on Taking Photos for HDR.
- Now that you’ve gotten some photos into HDRtist, the hard part has been done. Seriously! That was the hard part. You see the Strength slider at the bottom right hand corner of the window, click on the slider and move it left or right. You should notice how the HDR changes.
- Each notch on the Strength Bar is a different technique and produces different results. At the far left is least, while on the far right is the most extreme. You can also mix two of the effects together by setting the Strength Bar between two effects.
- That is it, you’ve just taken photos for an HDR, created an HDR image and tone mapped it… Yep, it is simple. You can either admire it in HDRtist, or use the Save button to save the image to disk. If you have Funtastic Photos, clicking the "Edit in Funtastic Photos" button will open your HDR into Funtastic Photos, where you can add frames, special effects, watermarks, create photo mosaics, print greetings cards or cubes, upload your photos online (Facebook, Flickr and MobileMe) and share your HDRs as Fun Cards… If you’d like to try the unlimited trial of Funtastic Photos, or learn more about Funtastic Photos; please visit http://www.ohanaware.com/funtasticphotos/
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Tip:
You can also use HDRtist to create weird pictures, by throwing in completely different photos, see the example below. I used a photo of a tower and a photo of a tree, to get this tree building.
Single Exposure or Single Photo
While HDRtist was designed for HDR images, you can use HDRtist on single photo and it’ll still produce some great results. Basically you’re just Tone Mapping your photo.
- The first step is to load a photo into HDRtist. There’s a bunch of ways to do this. You can drag photos from iPhoto or Finder into the HDRtist window, or you can use the "Add Photos…" toolbar button and then choose a photo. Personally I prefer to drag them from iPhoto into HDRtist. For this tutorial I’m going to use a photo of an old Morris 8.
- Now that you’ve gotten your photo into HDRtist, the hard part has been done. Seriously! You see the Strength slider at the bottom right hand corner of the window, click on the slider and move it left or right. You’ll notice how the effect changes.
- Each notch on the Strength Bar is a different technique and produces different results. At the far left is least, while on the far right is the most extreme. You can also mix two of the effects together by setting the Strength Bar between two effects.
- That is it, you’ve just tone mapped a photo… You can either admire it in HDRtist, or use the Save button to save the image to disk. If you have Funtastic Photos, clicking the "Edit in Funtastic Photos" button will open your HDR into Funtastic Photos, where you can add frames, special effects, watermarks, create photo mosaics, print greetings cards or cubes, upload your photos online (Facebook, Flickr and MobileMe) and share your HDRs as Fun Cards… If you’d like to try the unlimited trial of Funtastic Photos, or learn more about Funtastic Photos; please visit http://www.ohanaware.com/funtasticphotos/
October 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am
I add a photo. Then I add another photo, and the first one disappears. When I add a second photo, the first one is gone. What’s wrong?
October 11th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Hi FredB,
Nothing is wrong, you either add all the photos you want to use in a single swoop (if you use the Add Photos button, hold down the ‘command’ key to multi select), or hold down the shift key as you add the second, third, forth image.
I hope that this helps and wish you a great weekend.
Sam Rowlands
November 14th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Is it possible to manually align images? Zoom in while doing so?
November 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I adjust the strength with three images taken using AEB but when I save the image the result is not the same image that appears in the HDRtist software – it is a much lighter strength and has strange squares of increased strength on the outer edges. I am using an IMac G5 – OSX10.5 – 2.66 Ghz
November 25th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Hi There, a couple of people are having this problem. We’re looking into at the moment. We’ll make a public announcement when we have a solution. In the meantime a temporary solution is to use smaller (dimensions) images.
February 5th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
The program work fine and I produce great pseudo HDR image result, but the saved file a have very poor image result
I like to have the same image result I see on the program, also on saved file.
March 4th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Please download the latest version of HDRtist (v1.2 at time of printing).
March 4th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
This has been fixed now, you can get it from the HDRtist website http://www.ohanaware.com/hdrtist/
July 26th, 2010 at 1:12 am
Seems great, but after downloading the Image_Align zip, it wouldn’t decompress. After some redownloads and permission repairs, HDRtist stopped complaining and started to align the images, but with a new error message (“An error occured during alignment…”). Now, subsequent downloads of HDRtist doesn’t help, as I guess the align commands are already installed somewhere. I’d like to get everything back to scratch…
August 1st, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Hi there,
hmm… I’m not sure why you’d be getting so many problems, next time you try it, can you open the “Console” application and check to see if there’s a more detailed error message.
if you want to remove the “align_image_stack”, it’s stored in “/usr/bin/”, I’d suggest using the “Go to Folder…”, then entering “/usr/bin/”. Then select “align_image_stack” and ONLY “align_image_stack”, then drag it to the Trash. As a note we’re working on improving the “align_image_stack” installation process.
If you’re still having trouble, then please check the “Console” app for any messages logged HDRtist and contact our support using the website. http://www.ohanaware.com/contact/
Hope this helps and have a great week.
Sam Rowlands
November 14th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
I am having similar problems as Fikon. It says my image align won’t decompress it can’t find the usr/bin in documents (should align_image_stack be in “documents”). I have removed the program and reinstalled and the same thing happens. I’m not sure what to do now? And in the error message it says it can’t open or find AIS.zip.ZIP (two zips) Very odd.
pixie
December 8th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Hi Sam, same prob as Pixie Susan & Fikon. Align will not decompress. Thought that it had something to do with my hyphenated surname, as the ‘parsing’ of the user name then allows a non-standard character to enter into the de-compression chain. I’m not a programmer, I just see the string involved & think that might be where the problem is arising.
Hope this can be resolved as am looking forward to trying the software out! Cheers, G H-C
January 24th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
When creating a pseudo HDR with a single image, I drag one photo from iPhoto. Once I’ve adjusted the strength (let’s say halfway or at a minimum intensity) and Save, the image I get on my desktop after Tone Mapping has occurred, is at maximum strength. Is it possible to create and save HDR images at different strengths? (as they appear in the preview window before saving)
January 28th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Hi Jennifer,
I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with out HDRtist software. I’ve just tested the latest version of HDRtist with various strengths and it appears to be working for me.
I’d suggest that you ensure you’re using the latest version of HDRtist, by downloading it from our site.
http://www.ohanaware.com/hdrtist/
If you’re still having problems, please use the e-mail support function from the help menu within HDRtist.
Thanks and have a great weekend.
Sam Rowlands
May 11th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
The problem with downloading AIS.zip file persists. Is gets near 90% and then drops out with an error
End-of-central-directory signature not found.
May 11th, 2011 at 8:55 pm
We’re not sure why a handful of people are having this error, we’re working on a new version that will use a different system.
July 21st, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Hi, I also have the problem with the AIS.zip
The file is in the Document folder and if I try to open it my unarchiver ask me a password. I don’t know if the file is on your server but if it is can’t you tell us the password. So we could open the file and install it ourselves if it’s not too hard.
Sorry for the mistakes I’m French =)
July 22nd, 2011 at 7:28 pm
We’re working on a new version which won’t have this issue. Stay tuned to our Mailing list, Facebook page or Twitter feed for more information.
Sam Rowlands