DOES HELICON FOCUS PROCESS HDR PHOTOS 32 BIT

Don't use hdr unless it will make the image better. And like it or not, most printers are limited to 8 bits, maybe a few can handle 15 or 16.Īnd yes, with every additional technical step you lose quality.

That puts an upper limit on the bit resolution that is meaningful to carry through post. Also, most cameras are hard pressed to give you 14 to 16 bits in each channel, and the fine bits are rather noisy in the best of cases. And in most if not all cases, hyper-fine monitor gradation will not affect image appearance. Larger monitor bit counts simply adds more gradation, not more dynamic range between bright and dark. No matter how many 'bits' a monitor may have, they all pretty much have the same brightness range, which on a calibrated monitor is typically a few hundred to 1. On screens of every description all the unmapped hdr files I have viewed have been represented like a regular file with brightness and contrast max'd out. Nothing is more informative than the perspective that comes from actual experience. It will all make sense after the first few exercises. For the first few panos, forget the tech stuff entirely, simply go for some result however imperfect.

So I don't understand why Photomatix has this thing called an 'HDR Viewer.' Unless most people use 16 bit monitors. I have the option of reducing the display range to 16 bits, but I leave it at 32.

DOES HELICON FOCUS PROCESS HDR PHOTOS 32 BIT

I don't get that, because my display shows 32 bit color channel.

Side bar: What does an HDR image look like before it is tone mapped? I've read in numerous places that a pre-tone mapped HDR image can not be viewed on a display (hense the need for tone mapping). I'm assuming, of course, that your processed HDR images are tone mapped instead of 'exposure enfused.' I believe 'exposure fusion' renders 16 bit files (not 32), in which case you never have to worry about a thing. At this point I don't think there is another option because Helicon does not accept 32 bit files (for now, anyway). That surely is doable, but I suspect you are losing quality by clipping all those floating bits before you finish all your processing. So it sounds like you tone map (compress from 32 bit to 16 bit) BEFORE you import into Helicon.

Does helicon focus process hdr photos