High dynamic range software ready for testing

Along with face and smile recognition, camera makers have begun flirting with improving the dynamic range of their new cameras. The human eye is good at distinguishing the subtle play of light on objects it's looking at. Film, although not as good as wet optics, can do it, too. Not so, though, with digital cameras. No doubt that will change, but until it does, photographers looking to boost the dynamic range of their pics will turn to software to achieve that end. HDR images can be created with a bit of sweat using Adobe Photoshop, but there are standalone tools for performing the task, too. One of them is Photomatix ($99), from HDRsoft. This month the company has been tweaking a beta release of version 3.0 of the application. A free download of the beta for Macs and Windows is available at the outfit's Web site. A fine photographer can produce some amazing eye candy with this software, as is evidenced in the user gallery at the Netpost. If, after browsing the gallery, you get inspired to do your own dabbling in HDR photogrphy, you may want to consider taking a course on the subject, such as the one just announced by xTrain, who has hired Photoshop pandit Ben Willmore to teach it.