Help - Photomatix HDR Tone Mapping Plug-In for Aperture
 
 
 
The HDR Tone Mapping Plug-In merges photos taken under different exposures into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image. It then lets you tone map the HDR image with various settings.
You can also use the Plug-In with a single photo. However, you will get optimal results with multiple exposures. See the section Taking photos of a HDR contrast scene for details.
The plug-in offers two tone mapping methods to process your image.
· Details Enhancer: This method increases local contrast, which has the effect of boosting shadows and creating a painterly effect. On the other hand, increasing local details makes noise artifacts more visible.
· Tone Compressor: This method produces a more "photographic" look, and avoids noise and halo artifacts.
The settings for each method are described below. For a more detailed description, we recommend the "Tutorial on Photomatix Pro Tone Mapping" available from this page of our website. Although this tutorial shows the standalone Photomatix Pro, the tone mapping settings are the same as with this plug-in (to the exception of the slider for the 'Smoothing' setting, but this is because the video shows an older version of Photomatix Pro).
  
 
Settings for Details Enhancer Tone Mapping
Settings for Tone Compressor Tone Mapping
Adjusting Preferences
Getting more information and help
  
 
 
Settings for Details Enhancer Tone Mapping
Strength
Controls the strength of the contrast enhancements. A value of 100 gives the maximum increase in both local and global contrast enhancements. The default value is 70.
Color Saturation
Controls the saturation of the RGB color channels. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color. A value of 0 produces a grayscale image. The value affects each color channel equally. The default value is 46.
Luminosity
Controls the compression of the tonal range, which has the effect of adjusting the global luminosity level. Moving the slider to the right boosts shadow details and brightens the image. Moving it to the left has the opposite effect, and gives a more "natural" look to the resulting image. The default value is 0.
Microcontrast
Sets how much local details are amplified. A higher value gives a 'sharper' look. The default value is 0.
Smoothing
Controls smoothing of the contrast variations throughout the image. This setting has an important influence on the look of the tone mapped image. High values give a more "natural" look, low values a more "artificial" or "painterly" look.

Smoothing is available in two modes. In the default mode, it is in a form of a slider, and in the "Light" mode in the form of buttons. The effect on the image differs depending on the mode. The "Light" mode was the only mode in version 1.0 of the plug-in (and version 3.1 and earlier of Photomatix Pro) and tends to produce a more "surreal" or "magic light" effect.

White Point - Black Point
Both sliders control how the minimum and maximum values of the tone mapped image are set. Moving the sliders to the right increases global contrast. Moving them to the left reduces clipping at the extremes. The White Point slider sets the value for the maximum of the tone mapped. The Black Point slider sets the value for the minimum of the tone mapped image. The default value is 0.25% for the White Point setting and 0% for the Black Point setting.
Gamma
Adjusts the mid-tone of the tone mapped image, brightening or darkening the image globally. The default value is 1.0.
Color Temperature
Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image. Moving the slider to the right will give a "warmer", more yellow-orange colored look. Moving the slider to the left gives a "colder", more bluish look. A value of 0 (default) preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image.
Saturation Highlights
Adjusts the color saturation of the highlights relative to the color saturation set with the Color Saturation slider. Values higher than 0 increase the color saturation in the highlights; values lower than 0 decrease it. The default value is 0.
Saturation Shadows
Adjusts the color saturation of the shadows relative to the color saturation set with the Color Saturation slider. Values higher than zero will increase the color saturation in the shadows. Values lower than zero will decrease it. The default value is 0.
Micro-smoothing
Smoothes out local detail enhancements. This has the effect of reducing noise in the sky for instance, and tends to give a "cleaner" look to the resulting image. The default value is 2.

Highlights Smoothness
Reduces the contrast enhancements in the highlights. The value of the slider sets how much of the highlights range is affected. This control is useful for preventing white highlights from turning grey, or uniform light blue skies becoming dark blue-grey. It is also useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds. The default value is 0.
Shadows Smoothing
Reduces the contrast enhancements in the shadows. The value of the slider sets how much of the shadows range is affected. The default value is 0.
Shadows Clipping
The value of the slider sets how much of the shadows range is clipped. This control may be useful to cut out noise in the dark area of a photo taken in a low-light situation. The default value is 0.
 
 
 
Settings for Tone Compressor Tone Mapping
Brightness
Adjusts the overall brightness of the tone mapped image. The default value is 0.
Tonal Range Compression
Controls the compression of the tonal range. Moving the slider to the right has the effect of shifting both shadows and highlights toward the mid-tones in the tone mapped image. The default value is 0.
Contrast Adaptation
Adjusts the influence of the average brightness in relation to the intensity of the processed pixel. Moving the slider to the right tends to result in more "pronounced" colors. Moving the slider to the left tends to result in a more "natural" look. The default value is 0.
White Point - Black Point
Both sliders control how the minimum and maximum values of the tone mapped image are set. Moving the sliders to the right increases global contrast. Moving them to the left reduces clipping at the extremes. The White Point slider sets the value for the maximum of the tone mapped image (pure white, or level 255). The Black Point slider sets the value for the minimum of the tone mapped image (pure black, or level 0). The default values are 0.
Color Temperature
Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image. Moving the slider to the right will give a "warmer", more yellow-orange colored look. Moving the slider to the left gives a "colder", more bluish look. A value of 0 (default) preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image.
Color Saturation
Adjusts the color saturation of the tone mapped image. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color. The value affects each color channel equally. The default value is 0.
 
 
 
Adjusting Preferences
The Photomatix HDR Tone Mapping plug-in needs first to merge your bracketed photographs into a 32-bit HDR image. It can also process the image with chromatic aberrations and noise reduction before making the image available for tone mapping. The options for the merge into an HDR image and other operations before tone mapping can be set via the plug-in's Preferences accessible from the "Preferences" button at bottom of the main dialog. The Preferences dialog also offers other settings related to the tone mapping preview and output.
Alignment
By default, the plug-in asks whether you want to align your images. Aligning is necessary to correct misalignment problems when the camera moved slightly between the bracketed frames. This always happens with hand-held photographs, but may even happen when shooting with the aid of a tripod.
There are two alignment methods. The method "By correcting shifts" is fast but corrects for translation movements only. The method "By matching features" corrects for both rotation and translation, and is recommended for hand-held shots. Given that each method is based on a different algorithm, try the other one when one fails.
By default, the aligned images are cropped to remove shifted area resulting from the alignment process. When you need that the tone mapped image has the same width and height as the source images, then uncheck the box "Crop aligned images".
Reduce chromatic aberrations
This option attempts to automatically correct color fringing due to chromatic aberrations of the lens. Checking this option is recommended, given that chromatic aberrations tend to show around high contrast edges, and are thus particularly an issue for HDR images. Note that the chromatic aberrations reduction increases processing times significantly.
Reduce noise
This option reduces chromatic noise and, to a lesser extent, luminance noise. Note that the noise reduction increases processing times significantly.
Settings for starting
When "Start with settings of previous session" is selected, the settings you used the last time you ran the plug-in will be selected when the plug-in dialog shows. If you prefer to always show the default settings when you start the plug-in, then select "Start with default settings" instead.
Default preview size
This option sets the default selection for the "Preview Size" setting located at bottom of the plug-in's main dialog. There are 9 sizes possible for the preview, the default being 1. Note that this setting is only for the size of the preview and not the size of the window -- you may have to adjust the size of the window when the size of the preview is changed.
Tag with keyword
This option lets you set the keyword that is added to the tone mapped image.
 
 
 
Registering the plug-in with your license key
To register your copy of the Photomatix plug-in for Aperture, make sure the "Details Enhancer" tab is selected, and click on the "Save" button. You will then get a window where you can enter your license key.
If the window letting you enter your license key does not show when you click on the "Save" button with Details Enhancer, this means the plug-in is already registered on your computer (which will be the case if you bought a license of Photomatix Pro Plus and already registered Photomatix Pro).
 
 
 
Getting more information and help
If you need assistance with the Photomatix HDR Tone Mapping plug-in, please refer to the support page of our website for contact information.
The Photomatix Pro FAQ of our website offers several tips and general information that are applicable to this plug-in as well.