High Dynamic Range Photography in Linux

June 19 , 2010 Posted by Rowland In: Photography

High Dynamic Range Photography in Linux

This page is rewritten with a different focus – no pun intended. Some work is required of the reader in the way of research – Google or follow the links to the right of this post>>>

HDR in Linux is possible with different tool sets. PFStools and it’s dependencies, combined with Hugin tools such as align_image_stack and enfuse can be used to exceptional effect. A user friendly implementation is Qtpfsgui, permitting the use of a variety of image formats and bit depth, followed by tone mapping options if required. The jpeg files produced by the tone mapping utility have good resolution for relatively small file size.

Tweaking, such as normalisation and colour balance, sharpen and refocus can be done in GIMP. I have used the EAW Sharpen (local contrast) plugin to good effect – Smart Redux (using the refocus plugin) is another useful tool.

Proprietary tools such as Pixinsight produce very good quality HDR images, and while essentially a scientific imaging program it is excellent for terrestrial photography – some reading is necessary, but the basics are not hard to grasp and HDR is self explanatory and automated.

Alternatively, Windows based programs can be run in Linux using WINE or Cross Over Office.

Note: If using PFSTools, it may be necessary to download and build pfscalibration (sourceforge) where your distribution does not provide it in their package management repository – ubuntu for instance – everything else is available, including dependencies.

Qtpfsgui requires a few qt libraries to run, and the GTK officiando may wish to go command line or script instead – search for Edu Perez’s HDR tutorial.

For astrophotography I have found HDR techniques useful for getting the most out of images that are of poor quality or where only a few are available. The best option for astro photos, is of course, several hours of good quality data, calibrated, stacked and aligned using dedicated software. For that purose I have found Pixinsight to be a very sophisticated cross-platform too, compatible with Linux Mac and Windows.