In reply to Moreno Tagliapietra.

Hi Moreno,

Thanks for your feedback. I am glad that you found some useful information. I do use the best available proofreading software available. However, punctuation in English and my primary language Danish is based on very different rules, which makes it hard to get right. I do the best I can. 3rd party is an extra cost, which is not an option currently. But, I will run through it again 🙂

–Jacob

In reply to Greg Bee.

Hi GBanon,
No, it is slightly uneven in the sky, but I would never expect it to be completely even, no matter what HDR program I use. You have to blend in the original images to make a perfect HDR photo.

What comes out of Aurora 2018 is good enough to work with. The output from 2017 was impossible to work with, because the halos were so nasty, you couldn’t hide nor get rid of them.

–Jacob

In reply to Scott.

Hi Scott,

I had a similar experience, about my Aurora 2017 and my contact with Macphun.

I have very strong reservations about Macphun or whatever they are called now. I do not approve of their way of marketing the product and the rebate structure, however, they are investing heavily. And the product has grown incredibly and the major issues I had with 2017 are gone.

I still don’t use it a lot. Why? Well, it has a look and I just prefer something else. I do a lot more hand controlled stuff in Photoshop.

About Trey Ratcliff. He is in it for the money. He is a businessman as a photographer and he is a celebrity that can pull a piece of software onto the stage. And thanks to him, Macphun has been able to invest heavily in development, because they have sold many many licenses.

Thanks for the input!

–Jacob

Hi Jacob

A great, honest review. Thank you. Perhaps a few too many ‘commas’?

I tired Aurora 2017 and found it painfully slow. I was creating HDRs from 3 images out of my 5DIII. The tools were each taking 10 to 20 seconds at times to finish updating the image. Ridiculous for something touted as the best by one of the best HDR guys out there, Trey Ratcliff.

I emailed Macphun and asked what could I do to speed up the processing times, relaying my experiences on my “fast iMac”. They were “surprised”. They asked me to send sample images and so on. I told them the same thing happened on a single, hi res image downloaded from one of those “free hi res images” sites. They told me the “same thing doesn’t happen when they use it”; which left me to believe I had a problem with my setup.

They then started telling me my Mac probably wasn’t up to it but soon dropped that suggestion when I told them it was a 14 month old iMac late 2015 27 inch, top of the line, maxxed out with 32Gb RAM and 1Tb SSD. I mean, Lightroom didn’t miss a beat on this thing. At the time, that was incredible.

I asked that they send some of their test images and they went cold and I didn’t hear anything thereafter. Very disappointing.

Like you, I’m an app addict. I’m optimistically tempted by your positive reviews of the 2018 version but my fond memories of Macphun’s less than honest repsonses are still keeping me at bay.

Scott

Thanks for the review.
There still seems to be halos in the 2018 dome photo, but fainter and bigger. ?
Also all along the top edge.
Maybe it’s just the png compression?

Hi, thanks for the review, it has some useful information for me (50+ years of photography including fine art, using Photomatix HDR). While your content is quite good, I would strongly recommend you to have your articles proofread by a 3rd party. Especially your punctuation is so chaotic to make for painful reading.