AKVIS HDRFactory

After you take tons of photos on a holiday trip, several mirror pictures, or a simple selfie, there’s a high chance you take them through a processing program before showing them to others. As you can’t do this in Windows Paint, a search over the web can lead you to a stunning array of alternatives, which is also the case with AKVIS HDRFactory.

The application’s main purpose is to let you apply HDR effects to any picture you provide, for an enhanced feel. However, you’ll be happy to see that there are some more things you can manage, so you’re going to spend more than a few seconds.

To load an image, you can either drag it over the main window, or use the browse dialog, which is the default method. Not a lot of images are supported, but TIFF, JPEG, and BMP are usually common enough. This is available for both importing and exporting pictures.

Right after the picture loads, the application automatically applies a preset effect, so you immediately see a difference. The neat thing is that you can hold down the left mouse button to view the initial picture, or the other way around, depending on the tab you’re in.

Most work is conducted through the right panel. With three different tabs like HDRI, adjustment, and effects, you can combine an abundance of sliders to set light-related options, color and intensity sliders, as well as some special effects like white balance, glow, or vignette.

In case you don’t have the time or inspiration to manually adjust the sliders, there are tons of presets you can try out by simply selecting from a corresponding drop-down menu. What’s more, it can even be used to store your own configurations.

All things considered, we come to the conclusion that AKVIS HDRFactory is a quick and powerful way of bringing a bit more light to pictures, add some cool effects, or simply crop them to eliminate unwanted objects. Although file support is rather poor, it covers common formats, which is more than enough to satisfy most demands.