ReDynamix for Pseudo HDR

Over the next few weeks I'm going to tell you about a variety of tools for creating HDR (high dynamic range) photos. Some of the tools will be completely free and some will have a price tag. I'm going to start with a program that is probably one of the easiest to use. It does simulate the look of HDR from just a single original. For those who like the look of HDR and don't want to go to the trouble of taking multiple exposures of an image, this could be the choice for you. Let's look at a sample.



The top image is the original photo and the bottom is the photo after running it through ReDynamix. As I was using the trial version, you'll see watermarks at the top right and bottom left of the image. What is really exciting is that I simply opened the plug-in and looked at the two presets and selected the one I liked best. The total time to get this effect was easily less than a minute.

ReDynamix is a Photoshop-compatible plug-in and it lists several hosts as being compatible. It does not work in Corel PHOTO-PAINT X5, though I could see no reason it shouldn't work. You can download a free trial version (it adds the watermarks as in my photo) and the full version is $16. The company also makes a higher-end version called Dynamic Photo-HDR that sells for $54. For a quick and dirty solution, I really like ReDynamix and it is certainly worth $16.