Hello, new here.
I first tried HDR years ago, probably around 2005. I've been loathing it with a passion ever since.
I've been shooting professionally for about 14 years, mostly studio work but all kinds of stuff really. Recently I discovered 'exposure fusion' and it has simply redefined photography for me. I'm still working on the techniques of capturing the kind of photos that I shoot with the equipment that I have. The most important thing is actually the post-processing. There isn't that much decent software dedicated to exposure fusion and I hear that it's a relatively new thing. Everyone seems to be busy taking fake 'HDR drawings', so 'exposure fusion' doesn't get enough headlines. I liked the sample photos produced by sns-hdr and it seems that the software has a proper interface. Interface is key because it allows adequate control over the end result. I did not install the trial version (not even sure if there is one) but before I even do that I must know a few basic facts about sns-hdr. I'm sure it's all on the main page but I don't read Polish and the automatic translation is terrible.
1. Is it true 'exposure fusion'? I can't stress this enough. The name of the software implies that it is, in fact, an HDR software. You can tell what I think of HDR by looking at my username.
2. Can the software read RAW files from the Nikon D800 camera?
3. Does it accept 16 bit TIFF files?
4. Does it output 16 bit TIFF files?
5. Does it display the preview images in a color-managed environment?
6. Does it handle and display properly image tagged with the Adobe1998 and ProPhoto colorspaces?
7. Are the output files properly tagged?
8. Is the metadata preserved? What happens to the shutter speed, aperture and ISO fields?
9. Can the software align the source images?
10. Is the interface in proper English?
11. Is there a 64-bit version?
12. Is the Pro version stable on a Win7 64-bit machine?
I'm only interested in fusing images from my D800 camera. Each photo, when loaded takes over 200mb of memory. When fusing 3, 5, 7, or 9 images, it becomes evident that a lot of memory is needed. I have a powerful machine and the virtual memory had been disabled ever since I installed Windows. The 8GB of RAM which I have right now are not enough anymore, so I'm expanding to 16GB. The virtual memory will remain disabled and all the operations will be performed in RAM. Since I'd be fusing the exposures professionally, I need stability and reasonable speeds. Can I expect that from the Pro version of SNS-HDR, even when fusing AND aligning 5, 7, 9 images? I have the Intel core i7 2600 processor and will have 16GB of fast, expensive RAM. Would be nice to hear that SNS-HDR utilizes multiple cores but I think I'm dreaming.
Thanks for reading this.