HDR Editors comparison 2019
Why I changed my HDR SW?
At the end of the last year I switched from PC to Mac. After long summarizations of all the pros and cons I realized it was the right time to do so. I bought a MacBook Pro 13 (option with TouchBar) as it offers everything I need for my work – high quality display with great resolution, it is lightweight and durable enough to travel with.
The biggest change wasn’t switch from Windows to MacOS, but a need to change SW I use for photo editing. I was using Zoner Photo Studio together with their HDR composer for ages, basically from the time I bought my first DSLR. But Zoner is Windows only.
The crucial thing for me is HDR editor and when Zoner is out Photomatix, HDR editor in PS Lightroom or Aurora HDR are the most interesting options. I was curious about Aurora HDR they are the youngest in the industry, but I must admit they blew my mind what they were achieved in just couple years they hit the market for the first time.
I was using Zoner and did not test any other SW than Photomatix for a couple years back, they both did the job in the similar way so with such output there is no need to change it. Another thing is whole workflow I was used to. When I install Aurora I was a bit scary, as they promo pictures was super good and I did not believe that Aurora can achieve such results without Photoshop or some other photo editing tool. From the first sight, you will see 10 times more options than I was used to in Zoner HDR editor and together with layers you can really achieve what they say.
Speaking about quality
But let speak pictures for themselves. I will show you some of the pictures from my portfolio I was not happy about after editing in Zoner HDR so I used them to try Aurora. To be honest the best HDR editor from Zoner is in Zoner 16 (which is a couple years old), newer versions are not that good so I am using Zoner 16 for the test. New York pictures below were edited in Zoner X as well, so you have some comparison why was I using ages old SW.
From the two pictures above you can see that there is a pretty big difference when working with higher dynamic range. Aurora is a winner for a first sight.
Final conclusion
Aurora HDR 2019 is powerful SW which should be tested by everyone who works with HDR. You can achieve decent results and when comparing with Zoner Photo Studio I was using for ages Aurora HDR is the right option to pick. When speaking price wise, Zoner is using a subscription model. Aurora is one time cost so it will be probably cheaper to go for Aurora.
Buy Aurora HDR 2019 here. You can get 10% discount when using code: SLAVIK
Buy Zoner Photo Studio X here. There is no discount.
Please mind that this article is written by me and reflects my own opinion on the two SW programs compared. It is not sponsored by 3rd party.
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