Photomatix HDR やなさ
Yanasa Co. Ltd. represents HDRSoft, the creators of Photomatix, in Japan.

If you have ever photographed a high contrast scene, you know that even the best exposure will typically have blown out highlights and flat shadows. Photomatix offers two ways to solve this problem:
› Exposure Blending: Merge differently exposed photographs into one image with increased dynamic range.
› Tone Mapping: Reveal highlight and shadow details in an HDR image created from multiple exposures. The tone mapped image is ready for printing while showing the complete dynamic range captured.


Photomatix Pro is a stand-alone program that runs on Mac OS X and Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista. One Tone Mapping method is also available as a plugin of Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4.

Quotes from magazines reviews:
"Photomatix Pro 3.0 is an excellent tool for creating high dynamic range photographs."
Stuart Gripman, Mac Life, issue # 17 (2008)

"Using a trial download of Photomatix I came almost immediately to prefer it to CS3. Simpler and faster, I also thought it did a better job with mid-tones, shadows and saturation."
Adam Woolfitt, The international journal of photographic art & practice, issue # 61, 2008

"Details Enhancer is the option that I and many others photographers use exclusively because of the many creative and interpretative controls."
Tony Sweet, Shutterbug, issue # 454, 2008

"Make fantastic HDR with Photomatix."
Paul Carrol, Digital Photo, issue # 102, 2008

"The Photomatix details enhancer does a better job of rendering shadow detail than the comparable local adaptation algorithm in Photoshop, and produces images with a distinctive ethereal appearance. Photomatix is polished software, backed by a helpful technical support team, and is highly recommended."
Guy J Brown, Royal Photographic Society Journal, November 2006

Benefits for professional photographers:
› Saving on lighting equipment
  No need to acquire expensive lighting equipment -and carry it- when you shoot high contrast scenes. Just enable the Auto Exposure Bracketing feature of your camera, and let Photomatix merge your photos into an image with extended dynamic range.
› Great pictures on cloudy days
  Shadowless hazy sunlight or an overcast sky usually results in dull-looking photographs. The tone mapping tool of Photomatix Pro can turn them into great-looking images. Check this image as example.
› Saving time in post-processing
  Photomatix Pro is designed for productivity -- automatic blending, unlimited stacking, easy comparison of results and batch processing save hours of masking and layers work in image editing programs.
› Well exposed panoramas
  A panoramic scene is almost always a high contrast scene -- you can't limit your view to areas with the same brightness when shooting a 360° panorama. By taking views under several exposures and processing them in Photomatix Pro, you can create a panorama that will show details in both the dark and bright areas of the scene. Photomatix Pro offers both exposure blending (also knows as exposure fusion) and HDR tone mapping.