There are few times I have used software that really caused my jaw to drop. Photomatix Pro did just that. It's a Mac OS X utility that allows you to create what are called High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from separate digital exposures taken at different shutter speeds (exposure levels). These pictures are far more colorful and impressive in their tonal range and saturation.

Many digital cameras have something called AEB, or Automatic Exposure Bracketing. You click the shutter once, and the camera takes 3 pictures instead of just one. In my case I usually shoot a normally exposed image, then one 2 stops under, and another one 2 stops over. If your camera doesn't have AEB you can do this manually.

Photomatix Pro combines the three exposures you've taken into one, and tone maps the image into a JPEG or TIFF that displays a really wide dynamic range. The result is often a stunning picture, with little loss in the shadowy areas, and no blown-out highlights. It's hard to do if you are shooting people because they will move between the 3 exposures, but works great with landscapes. A tripod is recommended, but I've done just fine handheld and Photomatix Pro will automatically line up (register) the 3 images.

Words can't describe the difference, so I've included a few examples to look at. There are other Mac apps that do similar things, but I've had the best luck with Photomatix Pro. They also make a Photoshop plug-in and one for Aperture, but I think the full program is the best. Newer versions of Photoshop also support the creation of these HDR images, but the results are not as spectacular in my view. There is also a free, basic version of the program that lets you combine 2 images, but it is simply not as effective.

You can search for a lot of information on HDR photography on the web. I have found this site to be very good, and it reviews the different software that is available. It's very easy to overdo the look of HDR images, and Photomatix Pro gives you lots of control. You can make your images really good, or outlandish. The control is in the hands of the photographer. To many, HDR will be old hat, but a lot of photographers haven't tried it, and will be pleasantly shocked at the results.

Since you can download Photomatix Pro for free, if you are serious about digital imaging, I'd give it a tryout. If you buy the full version it is US$99.00.

Here are some examples of how HDR imaging works. Of course these images are reduced in quality and resolution, so they only hint at the differences.

Back in January, the folks from Creaceed released version 1.0 of Hydra -- a Leopard-only, GPU-powered photo application for creating High Dynamic Range photos that competes with the much-renowned Photomatix Pro. Just in time for the Apple Design Awards version 1.5 of Hydra is available. With more tone-mapping options, an image-navigation HUD, RAW importing (should you wish not to convert to 16-bit TIFF before importing), a plethora of Aperture options (more on those in a moment), and many more new features it's certainly a compelling release.

As mentioned before, there's plenty of Aperture integration with this release. As well as being able to import photos from (and export photos to) Aperture, Hydra is now available as an Aperture plugin (beta) - based on the all-new Aperture 2.1 Plugin SDK - that allows you to create HDR photos from within Aperture.

Unlike the cross-platform Photomatix Pro, Hydra's UI is the epitome of OS X slickness -- replicating much of the look and feel of both Aperture and other iLife applications. We'll be taking a look at both Hydra and Photomatix Pro in the near future to see whether Hydra's charms are merely skin deep.

Hydra 1.5 costs $59.95, and is a free update for those we already have a license.

If you think back to June last year, Picturesque - a neat lightweight image editor - was the deserving recipient of an Apple Design Award for 'Best Student Product'. So it's fitting then that, just in time for this year's Apple Design Awards, Acqualia Software has released version 2.0 of Picturesque.

Got a big ol' bunch of Macs to be managed? Your choices are numerous, with Casper, FileWave and of course Apple Remote Desktop all smoothly monitoring and updating your OS X clients. Now, with the latest update to cross-platform asset manager LANrev (which bears a striking resemblance to another management tool -- not surprising, same development team!), we get supercharged Active Directory integration, new packaging and deployment tools for software installs, and theft prevention features like IP tracking and iSight snapshots.

A 30-day demo is available.

Hacking the Mac OS X Installer DVD

I work at a university and we regularly get lots of new computers in that need to be imaged. Normally, people use a NetBoot server with NetRestore to do this, but our network is too clunky and poorly-designed to able to handle network-based imaging. So I have to resort to different methods of distributing our customized ASR images. For instance, we have one image for people in the Illustration Dept, but a very different one for workers who do not work in our design departments.

Last year, I was able to use Charles Sruska's excellent BootCD to build a bootable DVD that could then be used to image the workstations as needed. The ASR image is simply stored on the extra space on the root of the DVD, and NetRestore would let techs image from the ASR image to the internal HD of the Mac. It was fairly close to a "double-click" install for my techs: Boot from DVD, run NetRestore, restart the computer.

BootCD works well with Panther but has not been updated to work in Tiger. I'm sure Charles is working on it, but it's not done yet and I had to create a different solution, so I started hacking the Mac OS X Installer DVD. For the PPC machines, I used a copy of the recent Mac OS X 10.4.6 Retail DVD that was shipped to ACN members. It is a universal DVD that will boot any Tiger-compatible PPC-based Mac. Quite simply, this is how I did it:

When was the last time you heard of a .1 upgrade to an application putting $200 in your pocket? It looks like pushing the Aperture update back to April did some good after all: This morning, Apple released Aperture 1.1 with a host of upgrades and new features, the most notable being Universal Binary status, RAW image rendering speed boosts and new fine tuning controls, as well as a price reduction to $299 and - get this - a $200 coupon for Aperture 1.0 'early adopters,' redeemable at the online Apple Store (make your claim here).

General performance has dramatically increased on both PPC and Intel-based Macs, with Apple's press release boasting that "common repetitive workflow tasks such as Lift and Stamp and searching are processed up to 4x faster on a MacBook Pro (2.16 GHz) than on a PowerBook(R) G4."

The Aperture 1.1 upgrade is available for existing customers now through Software Update, and fresh $299 copies are also available now through the Apple Store.

Ever wonder what 3000 iBooks looks like? Or how you might go about configuring them? What if you only had three days to do it? Apple consultant Jaron Brass has an amazing gallery of photos. [via Digg.com]

I stumbled across another interesting (and free) image manipulator in Apple's downloads section by the name of ImagePlay. It's actually an open source editor with versions available from Sourceforge for OS X, OS 9 and even Windows, but because of that open-sourceness it doesn't appear to be utilizing all the abilities of CoreImage like ImageTricks does (correct me if I'm wrong). However, ImagePlay does offer a few key features, such as layers, various effects and filters, as well as the incredibly handy ability to offer an estimated file size when exporting various image formats such as JPEG, PNG, BMP (uh, why?), Photoshop, TIFF and even QuickTime.

While it obviously isn't Photoshop, I'm sure ImagePlay can still find its place in plenty of people's Application folders. This handy little image editor is available at either Apple's Downloads section or from its home at Sourceforge for the amazingly low price of $0.