HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE Aurora HDR is an easy-to-use, yet powerful, bit of kit. The results can be as bold or subtle as you like.
Gear/ HDR software
Aurora HDR Pro Advanced tone-mapping / Preset gallery / Adobe integration / Raw support
I
’M THE FIRST to admit it – I'm not a fan of HDR software; I've probably seen far too many examples of cornea-damaging over-processed monstrosities in my time. However, when I heard about the many features and benefits of Macphun’s new Aurora HDR package, I cast aside negativity and decided to give it a try. It's available in three flavours: Aurora HDR, Aurora HDR Pro and Aurora HDR Pro + Training. The entry-level offering boasts many of the tools that you will need, although the Pro upgrade does offer a host of useful features: extra presets, Lightroom/ Photoshop and Aperture plug-ins, Raw processing, more layers, support for more bracketed shots, CA reduction and gradient masking tools, to name but a few. For the sake of this test, I’m trying out the Pro version. First impressions – as powerful as Aurora HDR Pro is, it’s actually very easy to get started. You can create a HDR image from a single file, which Aurora splits down into three exposures before merging back together, or three bracketed files – if you choose the latter there are a number of additional tools to improve the final result, such as auto alignment, ghosting reduction and chromatic aberration suppression. Once you click ‘Create HDR’ the software takes a few moments to churn up the exposure/s and spits out a rather sorry looking mess. Fear not – this is your blank canvas, and where the fun really begins…
114 Digital SLR Photography March 2016
Before diving into the many sliders and settings in Aurora HDR Pro, I recommend starting with one of the presets. Usefully, these are split into categories to help you navigate the type of look you’re after – Basic, Realistic HDR, Dramatic, Architecture, Indoor, Landscape and Trey Ratcliff Presets (Pro version only). Within each is a plethora of options – they're quite self-explanatory, with the exception of the Trey Ratcliff Preset group. I’m not sure what Trey was on when he named his presets, but the aptly-titled ‘First Time I Did Mushrooms’ and ‘Party In My HDR Pants’ filters might go some way towards explaining it. With a basic look selected, many of the tools at your disposal should be familiar if you’ve used editing software in the past. There are a lot of options at your disposal – everything from tonal adjustments to colour, structure, lighting effects, detail and split-toning can be done within Aurora HDR Pro. What’s more, there are also selective adjustments available – you can use a graduated filter (Pro only) or brush to protect certain parts of the image from being affected, at an opacity of your choosing – useful if you like an effect on one area of your image but not another. Further customisation is available once you discover the layers function. Presets and effects can be layered up, and the opacity and blend modes of these layers can be adjusted. Impressive stuff.
Test: JORDAN BUTTERS
Price: Standard £39, Pro £79 Operating System: Mac OS X Website: www.aurorahdr.com Adjustments take place in real time – well, almost. This is Aurora HDR's one downfall. Even on a speedy iMac, the wait for the progress bar to finish calculating changes can slow things down. This is frustrating when you’re tweaking a slider just to see what it does only to find you don’t like it and have to change it back. Still, a minor quibble. Aurora HDR Pro integrates seamlessly with Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop, allowing you to export images directly into Aurora. The finished file is then exported back (in the case of Lightroom) into your library as a new file – a nice touch if you’re keen on keeping your filing system in check. While some of the presets are beyond what many consider good taste, there are some creative effects to try out and lots of parameters to tweak; I can see a place for Aurora HDR in many photographers’ toolkit, providing of course that you’re using a Mac. If you’re on a Windows-based machine you’re out of luck for the time being, although a Windows version is apparently in the works.
VERDICT Powerful, easy to use and versatile. I never thought I’d find myself enjoying playing with HDR so much. Aurora isn't the cheapest HDR software on the market, but it is one of the very best.
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