Picturenaut

Picturenaut is a free photo editor that allows you to create HDR compositions in an amazingly quick way.

Unlike other HDR tools, which give you enough time for a coffee break while processing your images, Picturenaut features an HDR generating engine that runs independently from the user interface. After choosing three or more images with different luminance values, the program processes them in just a few seconds, and creates a first HDR composition.

Once you've obtained this HDR image, you can modify the exposure value with a slider on Picturenaut's interface, and also try several different tone-mapping methods included in the program to check which one suits your composition best. The best thing about Picturenaut is that it displays the result of all these tweaks in real time. Plus, you can extend Picturenaut's functionality with plug-ins, though these must be downloaded manually from the developer's website.

Other features included in Picturenaut are the ability to align images automatically, balance colors and remove ghosts when combining into the final HDR photo. The program can work with RAW files but doesn't save to JPG.

Picturenaut is a surprisingly fast HDR photo editor, with several tone-mapping methods, support for RAW formats and other interesting extra features.

Picturenaut supports the following formats

JPG, DNG, CRW, CR2, MOS, RAF, 3FR, DCR, KDC, K25, PXN, MEF, MRW, NEF, ORF, RAW, PEF, X3F, SRF, SR2, ARW, EXR, HDR, PIC, PFM, PGM, PPM, TGA, VDA, ICB, VST, TIFF