To explain why Aurora HDR 2019’s new Quantum HDR Engine is such a big deal, we need to understand why it’s needed and how it’s powerful engine is making HDR processing faster with better results. If you’re an old HDR pro, skip to the “What’s so special about the New Quantum HDR Engine?” sections to be amazed. If you’re new to HDR or kinda understand it, keep reading. You’ll be glad you did.
Adjusting to see a High Dynamic Range
HDR (High Dynamic Range) images are beautiful. They represent what our eyes saw when we first looked at the scene. We looked off into the distance to witness a vibrant sunset behind an iconic landmark as we stood under a tall palm tree. To see the brightest white and the darkest black of the scene, our eyes had to adjust. Our camera, like our eyes, is very powerful but needs to adjust to pull in this high dynamic range. It can do this by taking the same photo more than once using different settings for different exposures. This is known as bracketing. If the camera only took one photo, it would expose for the bright sunset, leaving the iconic landmark and palm tree dark.
What’s so special about the New Quantum HDR Engine?
We have a series of bracketed images that captured the high dynamic range of the scene. Now we need to take the best exposure from each of the images and merge them into one. This is called Tone mapping. Tone mapping converts (compresses) the wide dynamic range image into one that is more narrow and can be displayed on a computer monitor. In the past, tone mapping was done manually — requiring the user to make these changes. Aurora HDR 2019’s new artificial intelligence changes this by using the new Quantum HDR Engine. This new HDR engine analyzes the dynamic range of the image to produce the best starting point to begin HDR processing.
This is just one of the many new features in Aurora HDR 2019. Learn more and order today, and see how the New Quantum HDR Engine can work for you.
Want to get an early start once Aurora HDR 2019 ships?
If you are a Photofocus reader and you purchase Aurora HDR through the links on our site, we’ve got you covered. To help you get the most from Aurora HDR, we’ll send you:
- Aurora HDR 2019 Hands-On Video Training Class
- Inspiration by Photofocus preset pack
- 20 Bonus LUTs for Color Grading
- 10 High-Resolution Textures
Just fill out this form and we’ll send out a link as soon as the software starts shipping.
A bit disingenuous to say HDR was done “manually” in the past… disregards a dozen or so HDR programs that preceded Aurora to the market. Prior versions of Aurora (the presets, at least) have always looked oversaturated to me.. hard to make an image look realistic. Hope that has been improved. You really don’t say anything about what makes the Quantum HDR Engine unique..
A bit disingenuous to say HDR was done “manually” in the past… disregards a dozen or so HDR programs that preceded Aurora to the market. Prior versions of Aurora (the presets, at least) have always looked oversaturated to me.. hard to make an image look realistic. Hope that has been improved. You really don’t say anything about what makes the Quantum HDR Engine unique..
A bit disingenuous to say HDR was done “manually” in the past… disregards a dozen or so HDR programs that preceded Aurora to the market. Prior versions of Aurora (the presets, at least) have always looked oversaturated to me.. hard to make an image look realistic. Hope that has been improved. You really don’t say anything about what makes the Quantum HDR Engine unique..