My previous blog post about Unified Color’s HDR Expose and 32 Float was not very detailed. The video I created was meant to be a quick preview of how you can go about creating your HDR from Lightroom to HDR Expose and then open it in Photoshop using 32 Float for more editing.
To clarify some things that might have been misconstrued in that post, I will share some more detail courtesy of Unified Color. (notes in yellow were added by me)
From a workflow perspective HDR Expose and 32 Float are similar products. All of the features inside 32 Float are also available inside HDR Expose/Lightroom plug-in. You can actually do all the HDR processing in the Expose plug-in so there is no need for you to take the same image in to photoshop and process it in 32 Float.
[box type=”note”]My video was intended to show the very basic of going from one application to the other[/box]
32 Float was designed for folks working in a photoshop centric workflow. 32 Float accepts any RGB image you can display in photoshop, and photoshop actually does support 32-bit files in different formats. 32 Float can take in 8, 16 or 32-bit images from photoshop that were created from any source, So you can actually merge your 32-bit images using Photoshop. photomatix or any other application, open it in photoshop and then edit the image in 32 Float and return it as a layer back to the original image. 32 Float does work on .bef files but is not exclusive to Bef as you mentioned so we do support other files too.
Perhaps there is some confusion with the bef file format plug-in that is installed with HDR Expose and 32 Float. This allows photoshop users to both open bef files created in HDR Expose as well as save 32-bit images created in photoshop as .bef. So you have both the file open and save as functionality with bef in photoshop.
There are several advantages to the .bef format the most obvious being size
In the top window you can see the size of the same files one saved as a .bef, the other saves as a 32-bit TIFF file. The Bef file is just 10.8MB in size while the 32-bit TIFF is 146.5MB. In the window below you can see that the 32-bit bef file is actually smaller than the individual Nikon NEF files used to make it.
[box type=”note”]The only problem with the BEF file format is the lack of Lightroom support. (currently)[/box]
You also mentioned that there were no de-ghosting options in the software. That is only partially correct. De-ghosting is part of the merge process so you can select the de-ghosting options in the merge dialog, here it is for HDR Expose stand alone app.
[box type=”note”]When I was talking about the Anti-Ghosting features I was referring to manual control similar to what is in the new Photomatix Beta versions.[/box]
And here is the same feature in the LR Plug-in:
Still wondering about this HDR Expose & 32 Float thing? Unified Color has much better videos than mine. They explain so much about the software and their capabilities. Here are some of them for you to watch.
Unified Color is full 32-bit High Dynamic Range Software company. HDR Expose is standalone software but includes Lightroom and Aperture plugins. 32 Float is Unified Color‘s Photoshop plugin for full 32-bit integration and is 64-bit compatible. Save 20% off HDR Expose and 10% off 32 Float by using the discount code “scottwyden“
For more exclusive discounts on Photography gear and software visit my Discounts Page.
Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
Scott
Leave a Reply