[HDR-photo] Why does the preview look better than the final output image?

[Geraldine Joffre]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:02:24 -0700, Bob Wise wrote
> Perhaps a silly question... can the software not provide the preview 
>  algorithm as an option for image processing?
The preview algorithm is already used for the final result. The difference is
not in the algorithm but in the size of the image to which the algorithm is
applied. If you resize your HDR image to the size of the preview, then the
final output will be exactly the same as with the preview. 

Actually, in case you get a large difference with the preview, with the final
result being very dark, resizing the image only slightly may be sufficient. In
this case, the dark final result is because the HDR image includes too many
abnormally low values which confuse the Details Enhancer algorithm. But if you
resize the HDR image, the interpolation done for resizing should smooth out
the outliers low values, and the algorithm should then work normally.

Geraldine Joffre