HDR in Aperture

Allansteff,

Welcome to the user-supported Aperture discussion forum. You should read the [Terms of use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa] that Apple requests we abide by.

How do I make an HDR picture i Aperture

As far as I know, Aperture doesn't support any HDR formats. You can tone-map an HDR image generated from an external program and then import that into Aperture. What I generally do is stack the "component" photos in Aperture. (I stack them so I have all the associated photos together.) Then I use my external program to merge the photos and tone-map them to produce a JPG. I import that JPG and stack it with the component photos, making the new one the stack pick. Then I compare the well-exposed photo with the HDR tone-mapped one to see if I actually did something worthwhile.

I have not used any HDR plugin programs for Aperture, but they exist. I believe they short-cut the export/import process to make it more seamless.

I generally export to a predefined directory and then launch my HDR program manually to work on the component photos in that directory.

[Apple - Aperture - Plug-ins|http://www.apple.com/aperture/resources/plugins.html#editing]

nathan

You may want to give *Nik Software HDR PRO* a try: http://www.niksoftware.com/hdrefexpro/usa/entry.php

They also offer *FREE Webinars* on how to use their software: http://www.niksoftware.com/learnmore/usa/index.php
In fact there is a *FREE Webinar today* (1/15/11) on HDR PRO at 9-10 AM PST.

You may also find a number of *FREE videos* on HDR PRO: http://www.niksoftware.com/learnmore/usa/index.php/webinars/archives#/advanced-a rchitectural-retouching/0/9/0/0/0/page:1

You can also try their software for a *FREE 15 day trail*: http://www.niksoftware.com/downloads/usa/entry.php?view=software

Look at Photomatix plug-in. I have that as well as Photoshop CS4 for external editing.

Within Photomatix, I normally use just one image RAW image although it also works with jpg images. It over and under exposes the image by 2 stops to produce one resulting tone mapped image, which can be further manipulated in terms of saturation, contrast, etc.

The resulting image remains in the project as a "version" and is close to the result of using three separate images.