Review by Michael McKee

I’ve been shooting high dynamic range (HDR) photos for about three years now. I’ve tried all the different programs for processing my images. I find that Photomatix gives me the most control.

The program is deceptively simple. I do mean deceptive. Photomatix lets you convert multiple images into an HDR photo with a couple of clicks. That is if you like the default settings. I don’t. It’s taken me a lot of effort to learn how to process HDR images that don’t have that typical glowing edges HDR look. I understand that people like the ‘HDR look.’ Fine. I want my photos to most accurately portray the scene the way I saw it. Photomatix lets me do that better than the other tools. If you have Photoshop CS5, give that a go first and see if you like it. Try all the dedicated HDR applications. They have free trials. When you’re done, chances are that you’ll chose the most popular HDR software out there, Photomatix.