What software for HDR?

[Kasandra]

Hi All,

I'm very new to post production on photography but eventually would like to get into HDR although not soon. However, since I may lose my student status in a few weeks I want to get any software discounts that I can now.

Software I currently have:
PSP6 (should I upgrade to the latest version?)
GIMP (just gotten yesterday)
DPP
Photo Impressions (don't think I've ever used this)
Picassa 3

I'm currently planning on getting both LB3 and PS Elements at the student rate, I realize I might not do enough photography to justify LB3 but... at the student price I can't resist.

Is there anything else that I should look at getting to do HDR someday?

Thanks for your input!

[jujitsu1]

Try Photomatix pro3.....its really good and free to download and use. It just leaves the watermark on your final image.

[Kasandra]

Thanks I downloaded it. If I keep it I'll have to buy it though. The trial version doesn't put one little watermark it plasters three large ones over the entire picture. Pretty much ruins it.

[Bluenoser]

What is LB3? Or do you mean LR3 (Lightroom 3)?

[Kasandra]

Yes LR3, I'm sorry that was an odd typo! Right finger totally wrong direction...

[Michael_2010]

If you are already comfortable with PSP, by all means go ahead and upgrade to Pro X3. It does most of what the others do. You just have to figure out what it is called from one program to the next.

I am also new to HDR and have not been that successful with it yet. Photomatix is probably the easiest way to process the images, but you are still going to want to take that result to a photo editor and work it over a bit.

[Kasandra]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks!

[JohnTait]

And there is another great one, Amazifier;
Use Amazifier, which is a nice and simple photo editor.
Resizing, Cropping, Flipping & Rotating is really easy in Amazifier Image editor. It's a free one like Paint.net and PhotoScape but Amazifier is far more simple and a has real cool look and feel.
Its good for 99% of the photo editing I do...
It has some nice Photo effects , Photo frames, Stickers and many more
things ..
You can get it from their website at http://www.amazifier.com."