Top HDR

This must be the season to release new software, because I have just learned about another new tone mapping software called Oloneo.  This software is very impressive.  It is currently in beta so the final product has yet to be released.  I encourage everyone to download the software for free and help with the development if possible.

After playing around with this software I really feel it is going to be a huge contender in the world of HDR software.  Here is a brief list of the things that make it stand out in my mind:

• Oloneo is fast, very fast!
• Real time adjustments
• Time machine tool is great for before and after checks
• It is nearly automatic, you can create great images with very few adjustments
• Oloneo is very intuitive
• Single image HDR works great
• Color channel based satruation and hue adjustments
• Very good noise control
• Oloneo controls halos very well

With all good things I did notice a few bad things which are as follows:

• The visual histogram tool could be improved
• The auto alignment function is a tad bit buggy.  It needs some work.
• The advanced adjustments involve a lot of guess work

Hopefully, since this software is only in beta the few buggy aspects of the software can be fixed prior to its full release.

The thing about this software that stood out the most is the speed it works at.  Oleano is very fast, and it even allows you to make real time adjustments.  My immediate thought was that since it works so fast, it would obviously sacrifice quality but I couldn't have been more wrong. Here is a single image HDR that I did, please note that this whole process must have only taken 5 minutes and that their was no further adjustments made in Photoshop.

As you can see the sky is much more exposed and the image has much better contrast and saturation.  Below is a complete list of the features that Oloneo offers, beware it is pretty long.

Color Engine General

• Full real time environment
• 96-bit per pixel
• 32-bit floating point color channels
• High Dynamic Range
• Ultra wide gamut
• Fully real-time
• Non-destructive image editing
• Highly optimized multi-thread, multi-processor, multi-core engine
• Highly optimized vectorized code
• Unlimited undo/redo
• Modification history

User Interface General

• Task-oriented, Workspaces -based user interface
• Uncluttered user interface
• Workspaces:
• Browse Workspace
• Edit Workspace
• Help Workspace
• Collapsible tool panels
• Integrated video help:
• Quick Tour Video
• Creating an HDR ToneMap Project Video
• Creating an HDR ReLight Project Video
• Creating an HDR DeNoise Project Video
• HDR ToneMap Tutorial Video
• HDR ReLigth Tutorial Video
• Image Editing Tutorial Video
• Advanced Curve Tutorial Video
• Brightness Curve Tutorial Video
• Photographic Print Toning Tutorial Video

Browse Workspace

• Multithreaded thumbnail reading
• Image folder browsing
• Image list with thumbnails for:
• Raw photo files
• Jpeg files
• Tiff files
• Metadata display for:
• Raw photo files
• Jpeg files
• Tiff file
• Image Info Panel with:
• Speed
• Aperture
• Iso
• Exposure
• Date
• File type
• Camera name
• Beta Version Panel
• Image folder selection menu:
• Select with File Dialog
• Select with Folder Dialog
• Recent folders
• Direct path
• Select with file dialog button
• Thumbnail size slider
• Recent Project Panel with thumbnail
• Project Image Selection Panel with:
• Image thumbnail
• Editable shutter speed
• Editable F-Number
• Editable ISO
• Editable EV
• Relative Stop mode
• Add selection button
• Delete selection button
• Clear selection button
• HDR ToneMap Panel with:
• Contextual help
• Video Help button
• Auto-Align Mode
• Project creation button
• HDR ReLight Panel with:
• Contextual help
• Video Help button
• Project creation button
• HDR DeNoise Panel with:
• Contextual help
• Video Help button
• Auto-Align Mode
• Workspace switch buttons
• Workspace switch menu
• Direct Open file menu

Edit Workspace general

• Time Machine panel
• Real time image display
• Zoom tool
• Rotate left tool
• Rotate right tool
• Flip vertical tool
• Flip horizontal tool
• White balance picker tool
• Histogram panel

Edit Workspace - Time Machine

• Record all image modifications with:
• Type
• Value
• Date
• Authors
• Comments
• Modification history is auto recorded in project files
• Versioning
• Animated history re-play
• Basic tutorial creation

Edit Workspace – HDR ToneMap

• Full real time rendering
• 96-bit per pixel
• 32-bit floating point channels
• High Dynamic Range
• Ultra wide gamut
• Halo control
• Color shift control
• Auto-align
• Auto image orientation
• Noise Reduction
• High precision HDR Image creation
• Five Tone Mapping mode/operators:
• None
• Auto Tone Mapper
• Local Tone Mapper
• Advanced Local Tone Mapper
• Global Tone Mapper
• Low Dynamic panel
• Photographic Print Toning panel
• Advanced Curve panel with
• Brightness/Brightness curve editor
• Saturation/ Saturation curve editor
• Color Curve Equalizer

Edit Workspace – HDR ReLight

• Auto Detect Ambient Light
• Multi white balance edition
• Control up to six light sources
• Auto Detect Light parameters:
• Temperature
• Tint
• Hue
• Saturation
• Fully real time
• 96-bit per pixel
• 32-bit floating point channels
• Ultra wide gamut
• Auto image orientation
• Color shift control
• Noise Reduction
• Low Dynamic panel
• Brightness/Brightness curve editor
• High Precision Light editor with:
• Illumination menu
• Temperature control
• Tint control
• Color Wheel control
• Saturation control
• Hue selection control

Edit Workspace – HDR DeNoise

• Full real time rendering
• 96-bit per pixel
• 32-bit floating point channels
• Color shift control
• Ultra wide gamut
• Auto image orientation
• Auto-align
• Image stacking
• Detail preservation
• No smoothing
• Low Dynamic panel
• Photographic Print Toning panel
• Advanced Curve panel with
• Brightness/Brightness curve editor
• Saturation/ Saturation curve editor
• Color Curve Equalizer

Auto Tone Mapper Module

• Auto tone mapping strength
• Auto detail strength
• Auto exposure
• Auto contrast
• Auto saturation

Local Tone Mapper Module

• Tone Mapping Strength control
• Detail Strength control
• Auto-Exposure mode
• Exposure control
• Fine Exposure control
• Auto-Contrast mode
• Contrast control

Advanced Tone Mapper Module

• Tone Mapping Strength control
• Detail Strength control
• Auto-Exposure mode
• Exposure control
• Fine Exposure control
• Auto-Contrast mode
• Detail size/Halo control
• Detail threshold/Halo control
• Edge sharpening control
• Panorama mode

Global Tone Mapper Module

• Tone Mapping Strength control
• Compression control

Low Dynamic Tone Module

• Exposure correction
• Brightness control
• Contrast  control
• Saturation control
• White Balance panel

White Balance Module

• Illumination menu:
• Custom
• As shot
• Daylight (D55)
• Cloudy (D65)
• Shade (D75)
• Tungsten (A)
• White Fluorescent (F3)
• Cool White Fluorescent (F2)
• Daylight Fluorescent (F1)
• Flash
• Kelvin Temperature slider
• Purple/Green Tint correction slider
• Color Wheel:
• Saturation
• Hue selection

Photographic Print Toning Module

• Shadow Color wheel
• Highlight Color wheel
• Shadow/Highlight mix control
• Black and white image support
• Color image support

Curve Editor General

• High precision spline based curve editor
• Interpolation modes:
• Linear
• Bézier Spline
• Catmull-Rom Spline
• Point control
• Tangent controls
• Add/Remove point

Color Curve Equalizer

• Hue/ Saturation curve editor
• Hue/Luminance curve editor
• Hue/Hue curve editor
• Multiple Hue Bands
• Modes:
• Vertical Lock Mode
• Free Mode
• Hue Band displacement
• Hue Band add/remove

File support, input

• Full Color Profile support for imported image
• Export Color Profile and bit depth:
• sRGB 8/16-bit
• Adobe RGB 8/16-bit
• ProPhoto RGB 8/16-bit
• Low dynamic image files (input):
• Jpeg
• 8-bit Tiff
• 16-bit Tiff
• Most Raw Photo formats (over 300 cameras supported)
• DNG
• High dynamic image files (input):
• Radiance
• OpenEXR*

File support, output

• Full Color Profile support for exported image
• Low dynamic image files (output):
• Jpeg
• 8-bit Tiff
• 16-bit Tiff
• High dynamic image files (output):
• Radiance*
• OpenEXR*