I guess this is a commercial announcement so beat me if you like... I'm a frequent contributor to this forum and I'll stay around to answer questions etc so it's not just spam, and I do hope this is of interest to some of you.
I'm an amateur photographer that shoot landscapes with my Linhof Techno / Leaf Aptus gear. My profession is in software development though, and in the recent 18 months we've had the opportunity to realize a dream, namely develop our own first commercial photo application which we've just released in version 1.0. We're making a stealth introduction as we want to be able to provide close and personal support here in the early phase.
It's Lumariver HDR, kind of an HDR software for those that actually hate HDR
It can merge and tonemap, but the focus is natural look, user control and highest image quality. It's not the software you use to get that gimmicky HDR look, but something you use to solve lighting and dynamic range problems typically in landscape photography, either stand-alone or as a companion with your raw converter and/or photoshop, always with the goal of a natural time-less look, ie it should not look like "HDR". A pretty unique feature is that it can import raw (various formats) merge/tonemap and then export to raw (DNG) so you can edit that in your raw converter just as if it was a regular raw.
The problem now is to find users for it. It's no coincidence that I've put quite some effort into making the feature set good for tech cam users, so it has built-in LCC correction and such. I primarily made the software to fit the type of user I am myself, ie a perfectionist control-freak with a pixel-peeping sickness .
I think the program will attract users that are used to having a palette of post-processing tools which the mix in various ways depending on what work they're doing. The program has an open architecture, ie import/export almost everywhere so you can use the results together with other software in various workflows, we've probably not thought of all workflows ourselves.
My favorite workflow I use myself is to shoot raw (.mos) possibly with a gradient filter on so I can make a single-shot in difficult light, shoot my LCC, then import in Lumariver HDR cancel out the grad filter and everything with LCC and apply new tonemapping using the software's algorithms, possibly with some manual fine-tuning, and then export to a DNG which I then edit in a raw converter.
Unfortunately for us Phase One / Leaf / Mamiya MFDB users Capture One kind of sucks at dealing with DNG (not the same color profiles as when importing the straight raw) so in that case a TIFF workflow can be better. With Lightroom and RawTherapee and many others dealing with DNG works very well though.
If you like to do your post-processing for your important images mostly manually in photoshop, to feel that you have that control from start to end, Lumariver HDR is intented to work as a useful tool when you need some tonemapping. I wanted myself a tool that can control light more than traditional dodge-and-burn, but still keeps the result neutral and accessible, and Lumariver HDR intends to fill that gap.
You can export the tonemapping as a luminance map which you can import and use in your layer stack in photoshop (or whatever photo editor you use). We want the results from the program to feel open, neutral and easy to understand rather than mystical, so when you look at your finished fine art image 20 years from now it doesn't have a dated look of some software algorithm made in 2013.
Concerning MF raw import support we support most digital backs, including the IQ260. Leaf Credo is an exception which uses some new .IIQ revision, but other Leaf backs work fine (.mos). If you get a problem with your digital back let us know it's often an easy fix. If you're a Capture One user for their color rendition I'd recommend a TIFF workflow though as said. As Lumariver HDR works only on the luminance channel you can do tonemapping without disturbing the color rendition.
Currently the software is Mac only, and as it's all floating point it's a bit of a resource hog so I'd recommend at least 8 gig RAM if you're going to play with IQ180 images. The trial is fully functional, only with watermarked output.
I'll be around to answer questions.
I'm an amateur photographer that shoot landscapes with my Linhof Techno / Leaf Aptus gear. My profession is in software development though, and in the recent 18 months we've had the opportunity to realize a dream, namely develop our own first commercial photo application which we've just released in version 1.0. We're making a stealth introduction as we want to be able to provide close and personal support here in the early phase.
It's Lumariver HDR, kind of an HDR software for those that actually hate HDR
It can merge and tonemap, but the focus is natural look, user control and highest image quality. It's not the software you use to get that gimmicky HDR look, but something you use to solve lighting and dynamic range problems typically in landscape photography, either stand-alone or as a companion with your raw converter and/or photoshop, always with the goal of a natural time-less look, ie it should not look like "HDR". A pretty unique feature is that it can import raw (various formats) merge/tonemap and then export to raw (DNG) so you can edit that in your raw converter just as if it was a regular raw.
The problem now is to find users for it. It's no coincidence that I've put quite some effort into making the feature set good for tech cam users, so it has built-in LCC correction and such. I primarily made the software to fit the type of user I am myself, ie a perfectionist control-freak with a pixel-peeping sickness .
I think the program will attract users that are used to having a palette of post-processing tools which the mix in various ways depending on what work they're doing. The program has an open architecture, ie import/export almost everywhere so you can use the results together with other software in various workflows, we've probably not thought of all workflows ourselves.
My favorite workflow I use myself is to shoot raw (.mos) possibly with a gradient filter on so I can make a single-shot in difficult light, shoot my LCC, then import in Lumariver HDR cancel out the grad filter and everything with LCC and apply new tonemapping using the software's algorithms, possibly with some manual fine-tuning, and then export to a DNG which I then edit in a raw converter.
Unfortunately for us Phase One / Leaf / Mamiya MFDB users Capture One kind of sucks at dealing with DNG (not the same color profiles as when importing the straight raw) so in that case a TIFF workflow can be better. With Lightroom and RawTherapee and many others dealing with DNG works very well though.
If you like to do your post-processing for your important images mostly manually in photoshop, to feel that you have that control from start to end, Lumariver HDR is intented to work as a useful tool when you need some tonemapping. I wanted myself a tool that can control light more than traditional dodge-and-burn, but still keeps the result neutral and accessible, and Lumariver HDR intends to fill that gap.
You can export the tonemapping as a luminance map which you can import and use in your layer stack in photoshop (or whatever photo editor you use). We want the results from the program to feel open, neutral and easy to understand rather than mystical, so when you look at your finished fine art image 20 years from now it doesn't have a dated look of some software algorithm made in 2013.
Concerning MF raw import support we support most digital backs, including the IQ260. Leaf Credo is an exception which uses some new .IIQ revision, but other Leaf backs work fine (.mos). If you get a problem with your digital back let us know it's often an easy fix. If you're a Capture One user for their color rendition I'd recommend a TIFF workflow though as said. As Lumariver HDR works only on the luminance channel you can do tonemapping without disturbing the color rendition.
Currently the software is Mac only, and as it's all floating point it's a bit of a resource hog so I'd recommend at least 8 gig RAM if you're going to play with IQ180 images. The trial is fully functional, only with watermarked output.
I'll be around to answer questions.