Hydra Express - HDR Photography at Mac App Store analyse

App power index: 100 (based on ranks around App Stores today)
Photography Graphics & Design Photo & Video
Developer: Creaceed SPRL
Price: 0 free
Current version: 3.3.2, last update: 7 years ago
First release : 10 Jan 2011
App size: 9.69 Mb
4.5 ( 7695 ratings )
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Estimation application downloads and cost

> 2.2k
Monthly downloads
~ $ 900
Estimation App Cost


Hydra Express is the ideal application for easily creating artistic or realistic HDR images from 3 shots with different exposures.

Are your photographs different from what your eyes actually see?
This is because a single photograph cannot represent the full gamut of light due to the physical limitations in the sensor. Its not your fault!

** Hydra is the solution **
Hydra provides human eye-like perception to your photographs by allowing you to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from a series of regular photographs (up to 3), either from DSLRs or traditional point-and-shoot cameras. The output produced by Hydra is much closer to what your eyes actually see.

** How does it work? **
1. Take several pictures of the same scene, changing the exposure value between the shots.
2. Import your pictures into Hydra.
3. Prepare the Photo: check if the images are correctly aligned, crop the image, and remove the ghost effect that could be visible on the image.
4. Develop the Photo: Select a preset, or adjust the output image (brightness, saturation, hue...).
5. Render the HDR image, and share with the world through Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Mail...

** Which Features? **
- Processing Pipeline & Real-time Preview: Hydra first aligns the imported images, and then merges them in a smart way to preserve the interesting inputs of each image. This allows you to tune parameters in real time while observing the changing result until you are satisfied, and then render the full resolution image in less than one minute. Resolutions above 20 Mega Pixels supported.
- No tripod required: Unlike most HDR software, Hydra does not require pictures taken with a tripod. Thanks to this unique feature, you can take photos anywhere to later merge them in Hydra.
- HDR from a single RAW image: You can also import a single RAW photograph into Hydra, apply tone mapping, and render an HDR image.
- Ghost handling: if an object moves across the different exposures, youll get a ghost effect on the HDR image. Hydra enables you to select areas where you dont want to use all images for composition.

** Main Differences with the Pro Version **
Following features are only available in Hydra Pro:
- Import up to 7 shots to create an HDR image (only 3 in the Express version)
- Batch Processing
- Probe-based adjustments: probes are used to select areas based on distance/color/brightness tolerance

User Guide available on the iBookstore: http://itunes.apple.com/be/book/user-guide-for-hydra-3/id540751427?l=fr&mt=11
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Available in countries
Country Price
USA 39.99 USD
Available for devices
MacDesktop,
Love Love Love

I absolutely love Hydra Express. It gives your pictures an amazing finish.. Although its a bit pricey, It is a lot better than photoshop and all those other photo-editing apps. Extremely easy to use as the computer does it all for you :) I would defiantly recommend this!!!

Plug-in is buggy

I purchased the Aperture plug-in with hopes of an integrated and simple HDR processing solution. Theres a programming glich that results in the app displaying "waiting for hydra to finish processing" message forever. It just hangs there and never finishes the process. It might work okay as a stand alone app, but the plug-in does not work and thats the only thing I bought it for. AVOID!

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