Qtpfsgui is an open-source utility that can transform your plain digital photographs into professional-looking HDR shots. Even though this tool is no longer maintained and has been superseded by a new tool from the same team of developers called Luminance HDR, Qtpfsgui is still available, and will still allow you to produce high-quality HDR images from your photo collection in a simple and rewarding way.
On the input side, the program supports 8-bit TIFF files, JPEG images, and a wide variety of RAW image formats (such as KDC from Kodak cameras, ORF from Olympus, or CRW from Canon, just to name a few). Qtpfsgui can convert any amount of Low-Dynamic-Range shots into colorful and high-contrast High-Dynamic-Range photographs in seconds. You can load any supported image file, apply any of the six profiles available and customize the results manually until you are happy with the new HDR rendition of your old LDR photograph. You can then save the resulting file in six different HDR formats, including TIFF, HDR, EXR, and PFS.
However, before you make that HDR image your final choice, you may want to play around for a while first by moving to the Tone Mapping Panel. Here is where you will see your images really glow – you can apply any (or all) of the eight profiles provided and see how your photograph becomes a completely different HDR photograph each time. You can then use a bit of your creativity to adjust the color and gamma levels manually. If you like the results, you can save the corresponding settings to a new profile, which will combine your changes with the settings present in the default profile you used in the first place.
The whole conversion process is so simple, and the results are always so rewarding that you will forget you are using a tool that was last updated in 2007.
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