Gordon McGregor recently published a post, “enthusiastic about enfuse,” on using the open source application Enfuse for HDR photography. I’ve experimented some with HDR and normally use Photomatix. Based on Gordon’s results I decided to take a look at Enfuse.
You can read Gordon’s post for more of the technical aspects of Enfuse but his opinion was that Enfuse produces blends that are more natural and less “cartoonish.” Of course it’s a matter of personal taste and you may like the harsher more surreal results some HDR blending give, but I tend to agree with Gordon that the more natural look is better.
After installing Enfuse I re-blended a few series of bracketed photos I’d previously produced HDR photos from. With the default Enfuse settings I’d have to agree with Gordon assessment that the results are less harsh with Enfuse.
However, there’s a greater range of user adjustments available within Photomatix and with the proper settings it can produce similar blends as Enfuse. Enfuse being free makes it attractive.
I also found the LR/Enfuse plugin, mentioned in Gordon’s article, made using Enfuse painless. This plug-in was developed by Timothy Armes, whose LR2/Mogrify plugin I also use–he does good work.
Thanks Gordon for sharing this discovery. It’s made a nice addition to my photographic application toolbox.
Disclaimer: This is not a review, in-depth test or recommendation of any particular HDR product/application. It is only my personal opinion after doing a number of simple comparisons.