Aurora HDR 2018 - Easy Find

31 Jul

31Jul

Designed as a dedicated solution for high dynamic range photography, Aurora HDR 2018 from Skylum gives Windows users an intuitive platform for combining bracketed exposures into a single photo. It can automatically form composite images thanks to tone-mapping technology, and features an all-encompassing HDR Enhance slider that can either make the punchy HDR look more apparent or reduce it for a more realistic effect. During the compositing process, you can configure the program to remove ghosting, color noise, and chromatic aberrations for an improved result. The software also offers a wide variety of tools for enhancing your pictures before or after combining them, including masking options and an advanced Raw file processing engine for performing non-destructive edits.

Aurora HDR offers over 50 one-click presets for quickly making sweeping changes to your image, with the possibility of saving your own custom presets for further use and sharing the file with other users. For more specific adjustments, a tone curve tool is provided as well as HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance), color toning, and highlights/shadows panels. Additionally, a lens correction tool can be used to minimize distortion and a transform tool is available for correcting your perspective. And in case you make a mistake, there is no need to fret over it; the history panel allows you to revert to any previous point in your editing.

Finally, the software is equipped with a variety of interesting filters that can achieve specific effects. A Polarizing filter can be used to produce deeper blue skies with enhanced contrast, while a Top & Bottom Tuning tool seeks to imitate the effect of graduated ND filters by raising or lowering brightness in specific areas. Aurora HDR 2018 can import several kinds of raw files such as NEF and CR2 as well as JPEG and TIFF, and exports to JPEG, PNG, GIF, JPEG-2000, TIF, and PSD. You can run it as a standalone application or as a plug-in for Lightroom, Photoshop, or Apple Aperture 3.2.

Filters

HDR Basic: gives you control over the tone-mapping process, allowing you to change exposure at specific tones, regulate tint and color temperature, or simply use the versatile HDR Enhance slider
Color: offers saturation, vibrance, and color contrast sliders for regulating the intensity and feel of the colors in your image
HDR Structure: allows adjusting of image detail and clarity, for either an HDR effect with great detail or a smoother, less vigorous look
HDR Denoise: reduces the amount of noise and image artifacts caused by merging multiple exposures, with a special algorithm to help preserve edge detail
Image Radiance: provides a soft glow to the image for a dreamy effect, with increased contrast and vibrant colors
Polarizing Filter: produces deeper blue skies and more contrast in clouds, simulating the effect of a circular polarizer
HDR Details Boost: designed to sharpen or soften details in the image without increasing noise or creating unnatural artifacts in the image, with different sliders for fine, medium, and large details
Glow: adds halos to the brightest areas in your picture to give it a shiny, fog-like effect
Top & Bottom Tuning: simulates a graduated ND filter, allowing you to selectively change brightness in an area and then blend it without needing to resort to layers or masks
Tone Curves: allows you to brighten or darken specific tones, for the entire image or for a specific channel, with a maximum of ten control points
HSL: gives you hue, saturation, and luminance adjustments with specific sliders for each color
Color Toning: offers hue and saturation sliders separately for the highlights and shadows, allowing for split toning
Dodge & Burn: simulates darkroom techniques, allowing you to paint over a specific area to lighten or darken it
Vignette: darkens the edges of your image to emphasize the center of the frame

Preset Categories

Basic: versatile built-in presets suitable for all kinds of images
Architecture: suitable for architecture, cities, and urban landscapes
Indoor: suitable for interior shots as well as objects
Landscape: suitable to nature and landscape images
Realistic HDR: suitable for images for which a realistic style is desired
Dramatic: a set of creative presets for stylized photos
Signature presets curated by Trey Ratcliff, Captain Kimo, and Serge Ramelli
Create your own custom presets, save them as .maup files, the copy them to another computer with Aurora for easy personalized use

Product Highlights

High Dynamic Range Image Processing
Automatic Bracketed Exposure Compositing
Non-Destructive Raw Processing Engine
Tone Curve, HSL, and Color Toning Tools
Lens Correction and Transform Tools
Save and Share Custom One-Click Presets
Top & Bottom Tuning, Mimics Grad ND Look
History Panel for Unlimited Undos
Works as Standalone App
Runs as Plug-In for Photoshop, Lightroom

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