HDR or Tone Mapping Plugin

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Hi All,

I don't hardly ever touch tone mapping, played around with it a couple times on the past computer when I had Corel, there is an auto button for it.

However now with the new computer I just got PS Elements 12, and while they added 64bit for Mac they did NOT for windows 8.

So I am without a very simple button for tone map or HDR.

My Mother is actually the one asking, as she in the past used my Corel on landscape photos every once in a while as a quick fix.

So I looked up plugins for her and found a couple that look doable and wanted input.

NIK looks to be a good one but the HDR is not available as a separate purchase that I can find.

Photomatix looks very popular, but more complex than one click that she's used to and a little pricey.

Also found one through JixiPix for cheap and works on one photo easily versus merging which she never does, she has a very very cheap P&S.

Any Input??

I also have LR5, but like I said my Mom just wants something easy one click that she won't need my help with.

Of course I'd like it around for that occasional image for OOTB.

Many thanks!!!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Linz, I have some good experience with Photomatix. The nice thing is that it has both the 'one button' option with a number of different pre-set tone mapping styles, as well as full control over the settings with a bunch of sliders. In my experience, the standard settings often result in a bit unnatural look. If that's not what you're after, you can finetune the image using the sliders. i usually also do some work in photshop afterwards. I use Photomatix as a standalone program and save a tiff which I further use in Photoshop.
Regarding costs: there is a simple version available too with only some simple slider controls next to the 'one button' option, which currently costs $39 . They have a discount program for people working in education or charity (I got the pro version really cheap because I teach at university).
You can download a free trial version from their website (both the pro and essentials version), which has full functionality but with a watermark o n the final image. Easy to try out if it works for you and your mother.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Linz, Photomatix would be my choice.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Thank you both very much for the input, the simple cheaper version sounds like it will do just fine then. Thanks for explaining the difference.

Mom only uses it to enhance her pretty horrid photos of yards (she's a realtor) and can't always get places with decent light to work with, usually just middle of the day.

She refuses to use it on the actual houses, as is the fad right now. For outdoors and yards she needs it.

She got all upset about Corel gone since PS elements doesn't offer it, I told her I'm not loading both on the new computer.

Many thanks!!!

Speaking of can someone point me in the direction of a forum thread, link etc that explains how to get your plug ins to show up in PS elements and LR5???

[Diane Miller]

Many plug-ins are "hidden" in LR under the File menu, in Plug-in Extras or Export with Preset. They should be enabled when they are installed.