Windows version of aurora hdr pro how to#
Windows version of aurora hdr pro pro#
Windows version of aurora hdr pro plus#

Make any final tweaks when done and export the image. Use the brush now to remove the mask so that areas you brush have the noise removed. As soon as you do this, a mask (black in the thumbnail) is applied that blocks all the effect.

Click on the Brush icon and click where you want to apply the denoise effect. Don’t worry if it’s too soft because you can now use a brush mask. Then use the Smooth option to clear out any really grainy areas. Then use HDR Denoise with the Amount up until you start losing detail.

Windows version of aurora hdr pro plus#

It’s worth clicking on the Plus sign under Layers to add a layer just for this.

Leave noise reduction to last because most of the other steps increase it. The Color Toning option can also increase a specific tint across either the highlights (usually the sky) or the shadows (usually the ground). The Color Filter section allows saturation and luminance increase for individual colours so if the other options are creating too much noise, use this. The interesting one is Color Contrast that makes colours stand out from each other, especially in the sky. Start with Color and increase Saturation and Vibrance. There are a number of colour tools that can enhance the photo without making it cartoonish. Either do it globally or make it specific to highlights and shadows. For things like water, you don’t need more detail so if your photo has lots of water in it, you can counteract some of the graininess by reducing the Medium and Large sliders. Go to the Details panel and increase the Small slider to increase definition in all the small details. If the image is lacking punchy detail, this is where you can make an impact without making something obviously HDR. Image after adjusting HDR Look and HDR Detail The Softness setting cuts down on the amount of contrast being used, but you are better simply scaling back the Amounts. The HDR Detail option is a much harsher effect and makes the image significantly grittier. The HDR Look is most effective on clouds and doesn’t require much increase to really bring them out of the sky.

In the 'Structure' section go to HDR Look and HDR Detail and try the sliders for Amount on both of them. Image after adjusting Midtones, Shadows, Whites and Contrast The Smart Tone tool here is also something of a blunt instrument, it’s usually better to use individual components. You could reduce the Blacks, but that tends to make the image quite grainy very quickly. Also, increase the Contrast here to make it more punchy. This makes it better, but it’s still flat so in the same panel, increase the Whites and watch the Histogram move over to the right, filling the empty tones. To do this, go to the Tone tool and increase the Midtones for the main part of the image and the Shadows for the deep shadows to get some detail there. The result is too dark so it needs brightening without losing the detail in the sky. The image below, opened up in Aurora, is the combination of four photos of Castle Stalker on the Scottish west coast. One of the four exposures of this image, somewhere in the middle. Usually, increasing colour saturation or detail will also increase the noise, but there’s a tool to try to contain that as well These include bringing out more detail, especially in clouds, more colour saturation and vibrancy, and then if you want, HDR-specific effects like vignettes and added glow. You need to use the advanced controls to firstly produce a well-balanced photo, then you can start to look at the features that make HDR a great tool for regular photographers. If there is a gap at one end, it means the result is still under or overexposed. What you want to see is a range of tones from dark to bright. The first thing to look at is the Histogram from the combined photos.

Windows version of aurora hdr pro how to#

You can then use the presets – see the first article in this series on how to use these – or get your hands dirty and try out all the tools on offer, as we are going to in the below tutorial. This should take elements from the shadows, mid-tones and highlights to give detail in all those areas.

Windows version of aurora hdr pro pro#

Once you have loaded your sets of photos into Aurora HDR – and all common file formats are supported, including RAW – then Aurora HDR Pro sets about mapping the tones in the photos into the single image it displays on the screen.