HDR Efex Pro 2 includes a graduated density control that will allow you basically easily replicate a Grad ND effect with your HDR, utilizing the full 32 bit range of the HDR image. You can still go crazy with wild HDRs if you want, but the realistic HDR settings are much improved, and the results look more realistic and natural and are more pleasing to my eye…and they take less time to do! The new tone mapping engine in HDR Efex Pro yields a much more natural looking HDR image with minimal effort. Sometimes that’s the look you’re after, but if you aren’t after that look, you need really careful processing and sometimes even that isn’t enough. One of the biggest complaints about HDR photography is that most of them look fake. Usually only 20-40% strength is needed, but on my example shot you’ll see in a moment, I had to use 100%, but it got the ghosts! Much improved tone mapping engine In my testing so far the ghost removal tool is fantastic. In the past, these movements between shots could make the HDR unsightly. This is an extremely useful tool not only for hand held HDRs, but for HDRs of landscapes where there are things blowing in the wind, such as grass or tree leaves. HDR Efex Pro 2 includes automatic ghost removal, and it does so by allowing you to select a master image (usually the base exposure), and then it will use that reference to eliminate ghosts from misalignment. To get rid of the ghosts meant a time consuming and tedious process of cloning out the doubled edges. One limitation to many HDR merging programs, including the original HDR Efex Pro, is that if the source images weren’t perfectly aligned, you’d get ‘ghosts’ from some of the exposures.
This generally can yield usable images for HDR merging, though a tripod is always better. I set auto bracketing on my camera, high speed frame advance, and rattle off 5 to 7 bracketed shots in the span of a second. I do a lot of hand held HDR shots in good light. While I haven’t had a chance to really delve into all of the improvements, there are a few things that really stick out to me as well worth the upgrade. Nik’s HDR software, HDR Efex Pro, has been my HDR tool of choice for a while now, and Nik has just released Version 2 of the software. They range from subtle to very in-your-face, and in my opinion Silver Efex Pro 2 is the best thing you can possibly use for black and white conversions.
The Nik Software plugins for Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop are among the best tools for giving an image that final touch up for the look I’m after.
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