Frequently Asked Questions

Dynamic Range Mapping is a more proper term for "tone-mapping" used by other HDR products. The term describes the same technique of mapping one dynamic range (in image) to another dynamic range (output device).

The primary difference between Dynamic Range Mapping and Tone Mapping comes from the underlying color model. Traditional HDR imaging applications are typically based on the RGB model, and this is why the tone-mapping technique is referred to as "mapping of tones" — that is the R, G and B tones. But HDR PhotoStudio is built on the Beyond RGB™ color model, which separates brightness (luminance) information in image from color (chromaticity) information. Therefore HDR PhotoStudio can use mapping in only one brightness channel without affecting color channels.

In HDR PhotoStudio Dynamic Range Mapping is typically done via contrast reduction (using Brightness/Contrast operation). By default in the Brightness/Contrast dialog when contrast power is reduced, local contrast power is set to go into opposite direction, so the power of local contrast is increased. This allows to compensate for the lost contrast in image details (when the contrast is reduced the image loses the constrast), keeping a natural appearance for the image. The powerful option for halo reduction also used in the Dynamic Range Mapping technique, which eliminates halos that can appear due to the increased local contrast.

Shadow/Highlight operation can also be used for Dynamic Range Mapping in HDR PhotoStudio.

HDR PhotoStudio™ has multi core optimizations in place. For example, with dual core CPUs you will see about 2x increase in calculation speed, and with a quad core CPU you will experience almost 4x improvement.
The multi-core performance gains in speed will be most notable on computationally intensive operations (such as Reduce Halo or Noise Elimination).

Yes! HDR PhotoStudio is available on Intel-based Macintosh computers with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard).

At this time we only offer the .BEF image format plug-in for Photoshop. The.BEF format is a very efficient HDR image storage format, and achieves unparalleled compression ratios while preserving image information with high visual precision and advanced capability.

We're working to bring the advantages of Unified Color to Adobe Photoshop users — stay tuned and check back soon!

For image visualization HDR PhotoStudio™ uses selected color profiles (ICC profile). Click on the small display icon at the lower left corner of the HDR PhotoStudio™ window to access the color profile menu.

For file input HDR PhotoStudio will accept any embedded color profile in any type of supported image format. It will read such images according to their color profiles.

When saving image files (in JPEG or TIFF formats) HDR PhotoStudio allows you to embed any color profile with the image data. Note that color data in BEF format does not require a color profile, since BEF always represents visual data in full, unclipped color gamut.

Yes! HDR PhotoStudio is implemented natively for the x64 computing architecture. If you're running an x64 capable system with a 64-bit OS, we strongly recommend installing the x64 version of HDR PhotoStudio.

You can verify what version of HDR PhotoStudio you are running in the About box of the application (on Windows it is available in the "Help" menu; on Mac in the "HDR PhotoStudio 2" application menu). The application will report what computing architecutre it is using — 32-bit or 64-bit in the About box.

Using the 64-bit version of HDR PhotoStudio will let you have such advantages as the ability to work with much larger megapixel files (upto gigapixel range, depending on your available RAM), as well as the increased performance of operation.

Note that on Mac OS, HDR PhotoStudio installation package contains both 64-bit and 32-bit builds of the application. By default HDR PhotoStudio works in the 64-bit mode. If desired, although not recommended, you can switch HDR PhotoStudio to 32-bit mode using the standard "Open in 32-bit mode" option in the "Get Info" preference pane.

Most HDR programs available on the market today are tone-mappers — although they merge to 32-bit HDR format, to process the image these applications have to convert it to 8- or 16-bit mode. HDR PhotoStudio is a first application that edits and saves HDR images in the full 32-bit HDR format, which preserves most of image definition in dynamic range, color range and precision. Every tool and operation in HDR PhotoStudio always works in the high-precision 32-bit floating point/channel mode.

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 degrade the precision of image data definition. Keeping image data in the 32-bit representation ensures that all of these essential image qualities are preserved.

HDR PhotoStudio 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 use 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 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 PhotoStudio you can keep the image quality at highest level at all times.

OS: HDR PhotoStudio supports the following Operating Systems:
Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard)
Windows 7 x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit)
Windows XP x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit)
Windows Vista x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit)
Disk space: About 65 MB (for installation) and at least 2GB when running HDR PhotoStudio (for temporary files for your images).
Memory: Minimum is 2 GB. For optimal performance and ability to process large megapixel images we recommend at least 4 GB.
CPU: Minimum is 2.0GHz dual-core, we recommend a high-end (2.8GHz or better) quad-core processor for the best performance (especially when processing larger megapixel images).

Click the Download link on the Unified Color web site. You can click Purchase to buy the software, or you can take it for a 30-day “test drive” by following the instructions on the Download page.

Yes - you can install and activate HDR PhotoStudio™ on a second system (e.g. a laptop). Your personal license comes with 2 activations. You can also move a license between machines if needed.
To move your license on Windows, uninstall HDR PhotoStudio on first machine. The uninstallation program will give you a choice to deactivate (free up) your license. Then use the same serial key for the second installation.
On Mac, navigate to the Help menu and choose "Deactivate the license code". Note that once you deactivated, the application will revert to trial mode, which may have expired at that time (so you won't be able to save images).
You can deactivate and activate your license (move the license) an unlimited number of times.
Additional installations on more than 2 computers at one time will require to purchase a new license for each 2 additional activations. Multiple-seat licenses can be purchased at a discount. Contact us for details.

You can do an automated check for updates in HDR PhotoStudio "Help" menu — choose "Check for updates...". If there is an updated version available for download, HDR PhotoStudio will prompt you and direct you to a web-page where you can download the updated version.

Follow the original installation procedure. If you lost your serial key send an email to support@unifiedcolor.com. Make sure you include your name and email address that was used when you purchased the product.

Normally our order processing system sends out the license information in just a few minutes after the completion of a purchase transaction. At that moment the license information is forwarded to the email you entered in the transaction details. Sometimes this email message can be falsely detected as spam, so check your spam folder to see if this is why you didn't receive the message with licensing details. Another common reason for the information not reaching you is that the email bounces from the address you provided. Make sure you use a valid and working email address.

Write to our support team (support@unifiedcolor.com) and we'll promptly resend the license information if it hasn't reached you. Typically we respond within 24 hours of a request.

Most image file formats are supported. This includes RAW files from most cameras (.CR2, .NEF, .DNG, etc), JPEG, TIFF, as well as High Dynamic Range formats such as Radiance HDR, OpenEXR, and TIFF with 32-bit floating point. 

JPEG or TIFF can be used as source images for "Merge to HDR" function.
You can also use HDR PhotoStudio to enhance single 8-bit JPEG or 8/16-bit TIFF photographs with great results. Because HDR PhotoStudio uses the Beyond RGB™ color model, image editing and enhancement become a quick and powerful process. HDR PhotoStudio operations work on any image.

Scene

For the most dramatic HDR results, you should shoot under difficult light conditions (backlit scenes, high contrast, bright light, darks) to truly benefit from the expanded range. If the scene doesn't have enough contrast or wide range of tones, your HDR image may not look much different than a typical single shot exposure. Note that you can still benefit from using HDR to significantly reduce noise in shadows.
Also make sure to use your camera's aperture-priority bracketing feature; this will help ensure image alignment in your final output.

Setup

Ideally, you should shoot the source images for your HDR work using a tripod — this will eliminate most of the camera movement that comes with handheld shots, and later eliminate alignment issues commonly associated with HDR imaging applications and techniques. While HDR PhotoStudio includes image alignment algorithms, excessive movement can cause unwanted artifacts/image misalignment.

We highly recommend that you shoot images using your camera’s RAW file format. In this way, you can enjoy the following benefits:

• Camera RAW image files retain all image information that a camera can capture.
  RAW format files basically capture and save every piece of information that the camera’s image sensor sees. So a raw file is exactly what the sensor “saw" when you made the exposure. High quality raw images enable you to make technical adjustments so you can easily correct exposure and white balance problems after the fact with some simple adjustments.
• Raw files have not yet been adjusted.
  RAW image files are your digital negatives — the equivalent to exposures captured on undeveloped film.
• You have a 16-bit/channel image (post raw conversion) to work with.
  Some cameras already offer extension of the standard 12-bit range capturing, for example, 14-bit of color range. If you convert to JPG or 8-bit TIFF you lose the extra data in the photo. Any extension of dynamic range offers you extra details in shadows or highlights that otherwise are lost with standard dynamic range.

You should shoot images using aperture priority with your camera's custom bracketing setting. One EV or more will likely produce the best results.

Yes. We provide a file format plug-in that makes .BEF format files compatible with Adobe Photoshop, so you can edit and save .BEF files in Photoshop. In this way you continue to benefit from Unified Color's industry-leading compression ratios when you save .BEF files in Photoshop

Yes. HDR PhotoStudio includes Adobe Lightroom export plug-in. The option to install it is included by default in the installer. HDR PhotoStudio supports both Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 beta.

We recommend 1EV or 2 EV, depending on actual contrast you have in original scene. In most cases shooting at 2EV will do a good job, however there could be cases when 1EV step is the best.
For example if the scene has a little bit higher range than your camera can capture, 3 bracketed exposures at 1EV step may produce a better result than same 3 exposures taken at 2EV step. This is because, if we take the underexposed shot, given the original dynamic range, the -1EV exposure may be able to capture highlights with better noise definition than the -2EV exposure in the same conditions. For the overexposed shot, the +1EV exposure may do a better job than the +2EV for capturing shadows (again, given the original dynamic range) due to a less veil from lens glare that happens on longer exposures.

It really depends on the original scene you're photographing. In most situations 3 bracketed exposures at 2EV step (-2EV, 0EV, +2EV) will provide a good result. However in some cases you may need to take more shots to capture full dynamic range available from the original scene. Also, in some situations you may choose to do 1EV step for best quality. For each scene there's an optimal number of shots (sometimes even just one!) and an optimal EV step.

Absolutely. While many HDR programs function primarily as merge applications, with HDR PhotoStudio™ you can take advantage of full-featured editing of 32-bit per channel floating point images (something you just can’t do in Adobe Photoshop, for example). Even if you do not intend to merge your 32-bit images, you can edit them in HDR PhotoStudio. If you intend to perform spot editing or another similar task in Photoshop, you should consider performing all your brightness and color adjustments in HDR PhotoStudio because it provides the most accurate color, and these adjustments will not affect your image's color (as they do in Photoshop).

There is no maximum number of images that can be merged together; rather, the number of images you can merge depends upon the size of your machine’s available memory. For example, on a typical 2G-3G system, you could merge 20 images whose average size is 10-12 megapixels. Note that typical HDR pictures won't require that many images, usualy 5-7 is sufficient to capture full dynamic range.

Recipes are simply a collection of user actions or tasks packaged into a single operation. If you frequently perform the same image operations, you can save time by creating recipes that enable you to perform the series of operations in a single step simply by clicking the Recipe button. Recipes are also used in Batch Processing function, when you can select a specific recipe and assign a number of image files to be processed with that recipe.

To create a recipe:

1. Navigate to the Recipe menu and select Create Recipe.
2. In the Create Recipe window, select the checkboxes for all operations you wish to include in your Recipe. Note that operations come either from the current image editing history (accessible from Undo/Redo buttons), or BEF file editing history (can be seen in Image Metadata window).
3. When finished, click Save As... and specify a name for your new Recipe.
4. In the Recipe menu, select Load Recipe, and then select the new Recipe to upload. Now the recipe will be available in the recipe list.

Color Tuning is designed specifically not to change gray (white) tones. The closer to white point your source color is, the smaller range circle of target color you'll get. Color Tuning is intended to fine-tune only more or less saturated color tones.

Use White Balance to change gray tones first, then use Color Tuning to fine-tune the other color tones. A good application for Color Tuning is the color correction of human skin tone.

Yes. Starting from version 2.15, HDR PhotoStudio implements HDR batch merge operation.

If you shoot many bracketed sequences in one day you can conveniently merge them into any HDR format file for later processing. In the "Merge to HDR" dialog (accessible from the File menu), choose the "Batch merge" tab. Then press the "Add folder" button. In this window you have the option to specify the number of bracketed shots in each individual HDR sequence and a folder where the source files for the sequences are located. Note that the batch operation only works on bracketed sequences with the same number of shots within one folder. If you have images with varying number of shots, you have to place them in separate folders in order to perform the HDR batch merge on them.

Once you selected the folder with source images, press the "Settings" button where you should specify an output folder where merged HDR files will be saved and choose the format in which you want your HDR files. Another "Settings" button next to the output file type selection will let you specify saving options of the selected format. For example you can control BEF quality settings, or OpenEXR compression options.

When you've setup HDR batch merge parameters, press the "Merge" button for HDR PhotoStudio to merge your multiple HDR images

You can certainly do so, however you must note that this process will not create any new information in the image. You can just load the original RAW file into HDR PhotoStudio and process it from there to obtain same level of details in the final image. The image result may be different because conversion to JPEG or TIFF changes the image information (typically RAW converters apply various S-curve corrections), however to note again this manipulation cannot create any new image information (shadow or highlight details) — you need to capture it from the original scene with true camera bracketed shots.