Hydra 2.1.2

Hydra 2.1.2 is designed to be an effective tool which uses a number of regular photographs (up to four) with different exposures (darker and lighter) to create a superior one which is much closer to what one's eye can see. This is because a single photograph cannot represent the full gamut of light because of physical limitations in the sensor. This process is also known as a high dynamic range, or HDR, imaging.

The output produced by Hydra is much closer to what your eye actually sees. You don't have to choose whether to have a beautiful sky or buildings, take 2 photos (or more) with perfect parameters for each of them, then combine them with Hydra.

The images that Hydra uses are not required to be taken with a tripod, as it is usually the case with HDR software. Hydra uses the same warping algorithm as Morph Age, which permits the alignment of images with offsets above a few pixels. This is a unique feature that means you can take photos anywhere without a tripod to later blend them in Hydra. This will change your way of making HDRs.

1. Input Images
   • Images (TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, PDF, RAW, DNG, PEF and most other file formats)
   • Exposure Value Calculator
   • Input filters (contrast, sharpness, color temperature)
2. Output Formats
   • Hydra Documents (.hydra)
   • JPEG Images (8-bit)
   • TIFF (8-bit and 16-bit)
   • OpenEXR (32-bit) only available in the stand-alone version
3. Aperture Support
   • Import from Aperture Library
   • Export to Aperture Projects
   • Plug-In (processing within Aperture with the same interface as in the stand-alone version)
4. Application Support
   • Real-Time Preview
   • Document Saving (choice of the file name and directory)
5. Alignment
   • Advanced Automatic Image Matching Techniques (free form and homography)
   • Multi-core acceleration
   • Manual Matching with Visual Feedback
   • Non-linear Warping based on Morph Age Technology (CeedMorph)
   • Real-time Previewing
   • Special image border handling (crop or mirror)
6. Merging
   • Ultra-fast GPU accelerated HDR image merging
   • Real-time Previewing
   • Individual Image Influence Parameterization
   • Output filters (saturation, sharpness, brightness, contrast)
   • Smoothness Tuning
   • Blending Tuning
   • Navigation through exposure
   • Loupe Tool with real time 1:1 preview
7. Tone Mapping
   • Perceptive
   • Highlights Compression
   • Local Adaptation
8. User Experience
   • Elegant and Intuitive Interface (the same in the stand-alone version as in the Aperture Plug-in)
   • Zoom and Navigation for Images
   • Switch Regular and HDR Viewing
   • Fullscreen Mode with HUD
   • Connection to iLife, input from and export to iPhoto library
   • Saving/loading HDR Presets, for user-defined effects

Enhancements:

• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatibility
• Support for 64-bit architectures
• Improved performance under Snow Leopard (final rendering up to 2.5 times faster)
• Use of sliders with real-time feedback

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.5.4 Leopard or later
• Any Intel Mac or a PowerMac G5 with at least 64MB of VRAM (GPU) required.
• Mac with Intel processor and at least 128 MB VRAM highly recommended.
• 32-bit and 64-bit architectures supported