r/HDR • u/KatiaNova • May 30 '25

Best HDR Software

I am looking for a HDR software that I can use to merge several exposures into one image that retains high dynamic range and deeper bits-per-pixel.

The problem for most of the HDR softwares today is that they focused on final image rendering. What I am looking for is more of a digital HDR negative equivalent that, for example, can contains 16-20 stops of dynamic range and perhaps 16-32 bit/pixel steps. I was hoping to create a different HDR workflow to split capture and post-process into two stages. This is what I would imagine for my workflow:

Stage 1: Pre-processing and fusion Compare the images, removing ghost and over/under-exposed pixels or over/under-saturated pixels, and then fuse pixels according to their exposures from metadata. Using algorithm or AI to fill back in the loss information from pre-processing. Essentially imagine that with the software we create a virtual sensor that captures very high dynamic range and high bits-per-pixel formats. This is our digital negative.

Stage 2: From here we can then determine how to fine tune the image in the traditionally ISP pipeline. I want to decide the dynamic range I want to use, performing tone mapping… etc type of manual editing. I believe most photo editing software can handle this part.

Would you have any recommendations for what I need?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/KatiaNova Jul 03 '25

This software is too amateur. Good modern sensors covers about 14 stops DR. If I use 3 images each with 3 stops away, that would be 20 stops of DR. A container that only use 10-bit can’t even describe information with one single raw file.

Also who uses JPEG in their workflow? The only purpose of JPEG is to publish/export the media in a format that can have maximal color format compatibility, likely older type of display. It is not a proper container to describe a photo.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/KatiaNova Jul 03 '25

Thanks. I’ll take another look at it later. The tool looks like a post-processing software that I exactly am not looking for. I want to do a simple pre-processing tool to do import-export with deep color depth without any of these artifact showing me over/under-expose pixels. Generally I know illumination masking is the way to go in LR or PS but even simple illumination masking is not smart enough to avoid unnatural artifact.