Mac OS App Review – Light Compressor

The Mac App Store is finally here. Buying and installing apps is now as simple as one click. If you are a photographer, this can be a very bad thing. After all, programs like Aperture are a staggering $80. Yet, there are some programs so cheap you may over look them. One such app is Light Compressor.

Light Compressor is a minimalistic HDR program. You can load in everything from JPGs to RAW files. This works on everything from a single image to combining a series of brackets into one HDR image. The program quickly, and effortlessly, loads the images and then allows you to begin your adjustments.

The adjustment process is straightforward. You have three sliders available for creating the look you want. The strength slider adjusts how much of an HDR effect your final image has. The radius slider controls the amount of light the image has. Essentially, you are adjusting how much light to fill in on shadow areas, while watching out for halos in the final product. Finally, the saturation slider adjusts how saturated the final product looks. I usually make my saturation adjustment in other programs, but it is nice to have here.

The last bit of adjusting is in your tonal curves. You can easily make tonal adjustments by playing with the tone curve. This includes the ability to plot your own points on the histogram and making adjustments exactly how you want them. This is great for tweaking the above sliders that much more.

When you are all done making your HDR adjustments, you can the image as a 16-bit tiff file. Saving does take a bit of time, so be prepared for that. I have run everything from three brackets to a single-shot image through this program. Those of you looking to tone map a single image should be fully aware that your result might contain a decent amount of noise that will need correction in another program. Running brackets (-2, 0, +2) produces better results with almost no noise in the final image.

This is a minimalistic program. If you require more power, you will want to look at something like Photomatix or HDR Expose, but those also come with a much higher price tag. Light Compressor is great for quick, easy, and fast HDR images. If you are just getting into HDR, then this program can save you a lot of money if you ultimately decide HDR is not for you. If you keep the limitations of this program in mind, you will find a good value here.

Currently Light Compressor is a measly $0.99 on the App Store. While it may not provide all the features of other programs, what it does provide is something so simple that just about anyone can dip their toes in the HDR waters. Even better, the developer takes in community feedback. Thus, this program is only going to get better. Snag it now for cheap!

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Company: Rav3n Studios
Phone: 678-761-3649
Email: chris@rav3nstudios.com
Website: http://www.rav3nstudios.com
Twitter: @rav3n_studios
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Rav3nStudios

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Chris Nitz

This is where you would expect me to tell you about my life, how awesome I am, or why I am so superior to other people in this line of business. I would enjoy telling you how I have wrestled grizzly bears 10 feet tall. Maybe you would like hearing how I have taken on Velociraptors in my days as a young man. Even better is the story how I have traveled to the furthest reaches of space to stop catastrophic alien invasions. The problem will be that you might not believe my awesome stories.

I will keep these awesome stories for the campfire though. I’m just a man, taking pictures, trying to make a living. I ditched my education in computers in favor of pursuing my passion for photography. I enjoy a good cold beer on a warm day. I have a fondness of the outdoors.. I have enjoyed years capturing life’s unscripted moments. Hopefully, I can enjoy many more years of slacking off without fear of those grizzlies taking me out before my time.

My Philosophy is to capture those non-scripted moments. To capture the little details that this world really has to offer. From weddings to insects, I enjoy capturing the life, the details, and the moments that come and go in a flash.

www.chrisnitz.com