A bit of an update regarding HDR Projects and HDR in general, as HDR capable displays are now mainstream, and software has advanced. The bad news is that working with HDR can now be more complicated.
HDR in a nutshell means that there are more colors, along with more shades of light/dark, between the 2 extremes of pure white & pure black. If you watch the same movie in HDR & then without HDR, you’ll notice that with HDR the blacks may be a little darker [it depends on the display’s design], and you’ll see more detail in both the shadows and the brightest, lightest parts. The same can be said about HDR photos, which are more common now that HDR display panels are no longer super rare for PCs, laptops, and phones. Where it gets complicated is making HDR photos look good on non-HDR displays.
Video is relatively easy – the same video is used for regular and HDR viewing, the difference being an added data stream for viewing with HDR. To convert an HDR photo on the other hand, the total amount of data must be squeezed, with some being discarded, to fit within a spec that simply doesn’t allow all that data. Finessing that conversion can be both difficult and hands-on. Photoshop lets you view & edit HDR photos in HDR on a capable monitor, shows you an approximation of what the photo will look like on a non-HDR display, letting you tinker with how that data squeezing is accomplished. It’s not without its challenges… many HDR displays aren’t fully HDR spec compliant – the brightness level would be inappropriate in a PC monitor sitting maybe 2 feet away. And the majority of HDR PC monitors can be calibrated, often with 3rd party tools, or they can be in HDR mode, but Not both.
Before HDR displays were common – actually even before they existed – HDR photos were a workaround making up for the limited dynamic range of cameras. That’s the world that HDR projects was born in. Better cameras let you take bracketed photos – a string of usually 3 [sometimes more] photos, one right after another, each at a different exposure setting, normally one darker, one lighter, and one at whatever you or the camera decided was the proper lens opening and shutter speed. The reason for taking bracketed photos is that you or the camera might have guessed wrong. An HDR photo can be made by combining all 3 [or more]. And it can solve the problem of a shot at the beach for example, where either the person in the photo is too dark, or everything else is too light.
The main problem traditional HDR photo software tries to solve is that sometimes not everything is all 3 shots lines up exactly. Beyond that it allows you to edit the photo, making use of the added data to better adjust the levels of highlights and shadows. Working on or with a non-HDR display, you can’t see the extra color range, but work with an image that’s already converted to a standard photo, which is what you’ll most often wind up saving.
Now, the average pro photographer doesn’t work with HDR photos all that often, though that’s changing as there are more and more HDR capable displays. That’s simply because most scenes look fine taking a single photo. If the average person takes an HDR photo, more than likely it’s because they’re using a phone that’s doing HDR behind the scenes in the background. So, when Franzis designed HDR projects IMHO they took a page from early HDR TV marketing. Rather than be content that potential buyers would spot the subtle improvements HDR made watching an HDR movie, manufacturers adjusted the TV’s colors to make the picture look different [IMHO garish]. Likewise, HDR projects initially focused on changing the colors in your photos to make them look different [garish] so people would notice. And they did – people still buy tons of paintings of Elvis on black velvet, so no surprise [& no offense to anyone intended]. Just know that garish colors have absolutely nothing to do with HDR.
Franzis is a large company, and they don’t stand still. HDR projects, like much of their product line, is evolving. Their latest HDR projects focusses a LOT on the conversion process, turning an HDR photo into a regular non-HDR image. You can still do garish if that’s your thing, but the old emphasis is not there. Version 7, today’s GOTD, is past the halfway point to the current version 10, so it’s more toned down than earlier versions, but the old emphasis is still there. It’s probably worth it as a giveaway, but if you’re buying something cheap, I’d suggest Corel PaintShop Pro 2023 when it’s on sale for ~$20-$30 [e.g. Humble Bundle], which also handles HDR. If you do enough HDR for non-HDR screens, version 10 Pro *might* be worth it.