• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Open Source: Qtpfsgui for HDR/tone-mapping

Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
1,191
Location
Kearney, NE
(No, the cat did not just walk on my keyboard.)
I just became aware of a free/open source program for making HDR images. The software is called Qtpfsgui and it is the only free HDR renderer that includes built in auto image aligning and tone mapping. As with the commercial Photomatix program, you can make some really abominable results (IMHO), however, I feel that it is generally unwise to blame the tool - so I pass this along for those who fall into one (or more) of the following categories:
  • Don't have Photoshop or don't want to learn to use it to make HDR
  • Are Linux users and don't have a lot of other options
  • Just like playing around with free software

Screenshots, documentation, an overview/tutorial (I hate his results), and the download page.

It can be run on Linux, Windows or OS X and is available in a stable version or a "bleeding edge" version. There may be some prerequisites for your system. I had to first install QT on my Mac, for instance.

The program contains several different tone-mapping algorithms, and the user controls the effect of each one.

I became aware of this thanks to the wikiHow page: How to Take High Dynamic Range Photographs.
Related: HDR Images Explained.

Enjoy!
 
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