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SNS-HDR - Mini-Review

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Mark0:
Basic Info

App NameSNS-HDRApp URLhttp://www.sns-hdr.com/App Version Reviewed4.1.19 LiteTest System SpecsWindow 7Supported OSesWindows >= XP + Net Framework >= 3.0Upgrade PolicyFreewareTrial Version Available?Aside from the Freeware Lite version, there are trials for the Home & ProPricing SchemeLite: Freeware - Home: 30 Euro - Pro: 85 EuroRelationship btwn. Reviewer and Product none
Anyone that like to play with HDR imaging, or photo retouching in general, should give a look at this program by Sebastian Nibisz. The website is in Polish, but Google Translate does a good enough job to help understand, and the download or changelog (it's update quite often) are just a click away.



The main point is: it just works (I have heard that somewhere...), and works very well.
It basically just need to know the images to operate with, and it start crunching pixels. Being command line driven, it's possible to just drag some photos over a link to it, or use it for batch operation, call it from scripts or other applications, etc.

A simple GUI is also available, just to ease the process of launching it.



The other versions have instead a complete GUI, witch let tweaks a lot of settings like the others HDR tools around usually do. But I do like the simplicity of the Lite version.

The just run it approach is almost refreshing, compared with some other programs that often need a lot of works and tweaks to come up with a good result. The simple presets of the Lite version are very effective, and do works very well in most cases.

The hi lights of SNS-HDR are probably the accuracy of the automatic alignment & deghosting of the photos to be combined, and the quality of the natural images that it can produce (versus the over-the-top ones that often are associated with HDR).
It's also possible to get surprising good results even starting with one single exposure!

The only real annoyance I found is the speed, or lack of it. But it's not really that bad: probably is more that I had been used to the amazing speed of another similar program, Oloneo HDRengine.

In conclusion: great image quality. Super easy to use. Free.

IainB:
QMark0: Thanks for this. Very interesting. I think I shall have a play with SNS-HDR.

tomos:
I thought I saw a HDR image in the View from my Window thread :)

Can you regulate how much HDR? - I'm not sure how to phrase it, I've never done anything with HDR -
I mean can you regulate how much detail is drawn out of the shadows and how much is added to the highlights? I always liked the idea of extemely subtle HDR: where you get more shadow detail & more colour in the highlight areas - but where people dont actually see that it's HDR...

From what you say, The hi lights of SNS-HDR are probably the accuracy of the automatic alignment & deghosting of the photos to be combined
-Mark0 (April 27, 2012, 08:17 PM)
--- End quote ---
I presume the photos dont have to be taken with a tripod

Mark0:
Can you regulate how much HDR? - I'm not sure how to phrase it, I've never done anything with HDR -
I mean can you regulate how much detail is drawn out of the shadows and how much is added to the highlights? I always liked the idea of extemely subtle HDR: where you get more shadow detail & more colour in the highlight areas - but where people dont actually see that it's HDR...-tomos (April 28, 2012, 03:41 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yes, you have control over that. In the Home & Pro versions, you have a lot of settings to play with. In the Lite edition, you can only choose from a serie of preset, like natural, interior, dramatic, etc. For the kind of subtle HDR you are referring to, I think natural is usually the way to go.

I presume the photos dont have to be taken with a tripod
--- End quote ---

Indeed. It autodetect and correct some movements between the shots, and changes in the scenes, like people or objects moving a bit. From my experience, it does a very good job at it.

Here's a sample of the results. These are the 3 shots, with -1/+1 EV braketing:

SNS-HDR - Mini-Review

Here's the results with the "Natural" preset:

SNS-HDR - Mini-Review

And "Dramatic":

SNS-HDR - Mini-Review

tomos:
Thanks a lot for that info Mark0 :)

via their forums, this video is worth a look

http://vimeo.com/34253229

"Striezelmarkt Dresden 2011 in HDR
completely processed with sns-hdr pro"

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