I’ve written before about some of the software tools available for creating HDR images. HDR stands for high dynamic range photography and can make a good photo really jump out. As a recap, here are links to some of the tools I’ve discussed before.

• ReDynamix for Pseudo HDR
• Luminance and PictureNaut Provide Free HDR Tools
• HDR Efex Pro
• AKVIS HDRFactory
• Photomatix for HDR

I was lucky enough to receive a license to the latest version of Photomatix Pro (you can download a trial version) via a Twitter contest. I used the Tone Mapping feature to tweak one of the photos I’d taken of a desert monsoon at sunset. At right you can see a few of the presets included with the software and you can certainly adjust the settings to exactly meet your needs.

For those of you that love to tweak photos on a smartphone, this of this as Instagram or Snapseed on a lot of steroids. Of course one of the most powerful features is using a DSLR camera to take bracketed shots and merging parts of each image. A bracketed shot means you have the camera shoot multiple shots at different exposures all with a single shutter click. Thus you may have a version of the image way too bright and way too dark and one that is “just right”. When then are merged via HDR software, the results can be amazing.

Go ahead and download the free trial of Photomatix Pro and have some fun. I think after you give it a try, you may just want to get a copy! Please post the best pictures you’ve created with it on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page so we can all see your work. Below is an example of my sunset photo after processing it.