HDR + WCG Image Viewer

Dealing with professional-grade photography gear sometimes requires complex editing software suites that take up a significant chunk of storage space and can overwhelm some systems’ resources. When it comes to High Dynamic Range content, regular photo viewers built into the operating system may not even be able to open the files themselves.

However, thanks to the open-source community and the focus on specialized software, people now have programs such as HDR + WCG Image Viewer that quickly loads HDR, DSS and JXR file formats.

The program initially boots up to a file picker for choosing which images to open. Once selected, the picture is previewed on the right side, while the left sidebar mentions whether the image has High Dynamic Range, if it supports color profile and the Maximum Content Light Level amount in nits. This information is useful at a glance for ensuring that the file format is kept by editing programs after the fact.

In terms of controls, the app also supports zooming in to view minute details or zooming out for quickly displaying how the picture will look as a thumbnail of various dimensions, using the mouse scroll wheel.

The lower left corner highlights useful keyboard shortcuts that support toggling the interface on or off for focusing only on the image and a full screen option for having zero distractions when checking out the image in its full resolution and quality.

Professionals will be pleased to find the ability of activating the HDR tone mapping function for a better viewing experience on their digital displays. Moreover, in order to instantly check which areas of the image truly support HDR, a render effect of drawing the Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) as grayscale can be applied. This could prove useful when having to decide which parts of the image require further editing.

A luminance heat map can also be toggled for displaying which areas of the picture provide the most light, and a brightness adjustment slider can be used for easily viewing whether further changes have to be made in advanced editing suites before sharing the image online. For compatibility purposes, the program has the capability of exporting a given image to the SDR format.

Those searching for a way to open HDR pictures without sacrificing performance or speed can look no further than HDR + WCG Image Viewer’s straightforward layout, quick rendering and brightness adjustment options and ease of use.