What is different about Unified Color HDR software?

Most HDR programs available on the market today are "tone-mappers" — although they merge to 32-bit floating point HDR format, to process the image these applications have to convert it to 8- or 16-bit integer mode. HDR Expose is the only HDR digital photography software application that edits and saves full HDR images in the 32-bit floating point format, which preserves most of image definition in dynamic range, color range and retains its precision. Every tool and operation in HDR Expose always works in the high-precision 32-bit floating point/channel mode (96 bit/pixel).

In the tone-mapping workflow paradigm you lose image quality when you convert to 8- or 16-bit representation. This significantly reduces the dynamic range, clips the color range and degrades the precision of image data definition. Keeping image data in the 32-bit floating-point representation ensures that none of these essential image qualities are lost.

HDR Expose uses the Unified Color Beyond RGB™ color model, a significant science and technology breakthrough. Beyond RGB is directly based on the human vision and was specifically designed to address the needs of high dynamic range imaging. Tone-mappers typically rely on output-based RGB models, which were not specifically intended to work for HDR applications. In addition to the mentioned image quality degradation, such issues as color shift during image editing can be experienced in result.

Human vision color modeling lets you manipulate image information independent from the image output, which becomes a separate stage in the Unified Color HDR workflow. First, you create and process the image using a device-independent (human-vision referred) representation; second, you output the image using available color reproduction device (i.e. a monitor). This approach lets you have the most image information preserved at the first stage, even though some of this information may exceed the capability of your device at the output stage.

Some programs support-limited options for the 32-bit floating point processing. For example in Adobe Photoshop, although the 32-bit/channel mode is supported, most editing operations and plug-ins are disabled. Thus, in order to do anything useful, you're forced to downgrade image quality to a lower bit definition. In HDR Expose you can keep the image quality at highest level at all times.