Aurora HDR for Windows is an impressive app that is an excellent option for photographers who are looking to make better HDR images or get started with the process. Aurora HDR’s user interface is very clean and easy to use. You can choose from four background colours to work from (the default is the darkest), and the overall learning curve for all the information in the app is quite shallow.
The histogram that hovers in the top right corner of the user interface is particularly helpful, especially so when making your adjustments. Along with being visually informative, you can also easily create luminosity masks based on the zone system by simply hovering over the histogram and clicking on a zone. As you may be aware, Luminosity masks are useful for making selective edits to your images, which is based around brightness rather than colours, or painted masks.
Key Features include:
- Batch image processing.
- Advanced HDR tone-mapping adjustments.
- Tone-mapping technology.
- Automatic RAW colour noise reduction.
- Polarizing filter.
- DNG file support.
- Radial masking tool.
- Advanced top and bottom adjustment panel.
- Zone system for luminosity masks.
- HSL:Hue-saturation-luminosity tool.
- Feather and density parameters for layer masks.
- Image resize and sharpen on export.
- Blend modes for layers
- HSL panel.
The app runs smoothly and doesn't consume excessive system resources. When working with large RAW files, the image processing is fast, and Aurora HDR runs quite well, handling tone mapping quickly and effectively.
Overall, Aurora HDR for Windows a great tool to work with for anyone who has the slightest interest in HDR photography. It has a stack of cool features and is not difficult to get to grips with. In fact, within a short period of time you should be able to produce stunning HDR images.
