Nik HDR efex pro2 vs Photomatix pro: I am tossing up which of these to buy as I want to give HDR a go. I would welcome any advice from UHH members as to which is easier to use, which...

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

I am tossing up which of these to buy as I want to give HDR a go. I would welcome any advice from UHH members as to which is easier to use, which gives more realistic effects. Perhaps there's another HDR program out there that is better??

Nikonnorm Loc: East Gwillimbury Ont.

Drydock I have Photomatix Pro and believe it is one of
the better programs. Plenty of tweaks.
you can down load a free trial.

IzzyKap Loc: Rockville, MD

I have and use both. They are both fairly easy to use. In addition to presets, they both allow full manual control and thus one can tune to one's own liking. In general, Nik HDR2 tends to give more realistic results with presets than Photomatix. But since one has a full manual control, one can adjust to own's taste. Since Google bought Nik, you can get a full Nik suite for little more than Photomatix.

drydock wrote:

I am tossing up which of these to buy as I want to give HDR a go. I would welcome any advice from UHH members as to which is easier to use, which gives more realistic effects. Perhaps there's another HDR program out there that is better??

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

IzzyKap wrote:

I have and use both. They are both fairly easy to use. In addition to presets, they both allow full manual control and thus one can tune to one's own liking. In general, Nik HDR2 tends to give more realistic results with presets than Photomatix. But since one has a full manual control, one can adjust to own's taste. Since Google bought Nik, you can get a full Nik suite for little more than Photomatix.

I have downloaded Photomatix which seems pretty simple but was put off nik because of having to download the whole suite-- would you ever use the other components of the suite??

IzzyKap Loc: Rockville, MD

Absolutely, I use Nik suite frequently, especially Define, ColorEffects, HDR, Silver Effects and Viveza.

drydock wrote:

I have downloaded Photomatix which seems pretty simple but was put off nik because of having to download the whole suite-- would you ever use the other components of the suite??

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

IzzyKap wrote:

Absolutely, I use Nik suite frequently, especially Define, ColorEffects, HDR, Silver Effects and Viveza.

Excuse my ignorance IzzyKap but do you use these as a replacement for PS/Lightroom or in addition to these programs

IzzyKap Loc: Rockville, MD

In addition to PS/LR.

drydock wrote:

Excuse my ignorance IzzyKap but do you use these as a replacement for PS/Lightroom or in addition to these programs

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

thanks

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Looks like nik has a 15% off coupon, making their complete software package about $126

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

My advice is go for the NIK package. One day soon you will want Silver for conversion from color to B&W so you will end up buying the package sooner than later and Dfine is very good To have as well. ;)

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

Cdouthitt wrote:

Looks like nik has a 15% off coupon, making their complete software package about $126

Where do I find the 15% off coupon??

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

drydock wrote:

Where do I find the 15% off coupon??

So far as I know the 15% coupons were good for a short time after Google bought NIK and have probably all expired. Try a Google search. Try NIK Coupon Code in the search bar. Hope you can find a current one. ;)

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

For a long time I stayed away from Nik's HDR software and used Photomatix exclusively. Then I bought the full Nik suite and decided to try the HDR. I'm now a confirmed Nik HDR user. I was always fighting to keep my images from going to grunge with Photomatix; with Nik that's not a problem. Truth be told, increasingly I'm not using multiple exposure HDR and am using single image tone mapping. I find that the quality is better and I get far fewer "Oh, did you process this as an HDR image?"

One sidebar, however, since Google purchased Nik, I see that the amazing series of webinars, a major draw for Nik, has disappeared. That's a shame.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

IzzyKap wrote:

I have and use both. They are both fairly easy to use. In addition to presets, they both allow full manual control and thus one can tune to one's own liking. In general, Nik HDR2 tends to give more realistic results with presets than Photomatix. But since one has a full manual control, one can adjust to own's taste. Since Google bought Nik, you can get a full Nik suite for little more than Photomatix.

Is not Nik a plug-in? I've not used it other than as a trial version. I do use Photomatix-- and there are many presets that are quite natural

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

I'm not sure I understand your question. Yes, Nik's programs are all plug-ins whereas Photomatix isn't. Functionally, however, I don't see much of a difference. One opens on its own; the other opens through Photoshop. Yep, that's the difference that I see.

My workflow--Bridge > CS5 > Nik Plug-ins > HDR Efex Pro 2 > CS5 > Lightroom > Printer--lends itself to using Nik.

I'm not saying, "This must be your workflow!" All I'm saying is that this works for me quite nicely. Here's an image that was developed using that workflow.