HDR PhotoStudio

{{Short description|Discontinued graphics application}}

{{Infobox software

| name = HDR PhotoStudio

| screenshot = HDR PhotoStudio screenshot.jpeg

| caption = HDR PhotoStudio screenshot

| developer = Unified Color

| discontinued = yes

| latest release version = 2.15.42

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2010|03}}

| operating_system = Microsoft Windows

| genre = High dynamic range imaging

| license = Proprietary

| website = {{URL|http://www.unifiedcolor.com}}

}}

HDR PhotoStudio is a discontinued high dynamic range (HDR) graphics application developed by Unified Color for the Windows and macOS operating systems. In addition to being a HDR-merge application, HDR PhotoStudio offered a set of image editing operations that worked in its dynamic range (the website showed an example of processing an image with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio), human color range (gamut), and in high precision (32-bit floating point). It also had a Color Integrity feature that enabled preserving an image's color tone during image editing operations — for example changing an image's contrast would not change its chromatic (color tone) data. This problem is usually referred to as "color shift".{{cite web|url=http://www.unifiedcolor.com/hdr_products_features|title=HDR PhotoStudio features|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310040411/http://www.unifiedcolor.com/hdr_products_features|archivedate=2009-03-10}}{{cite web|url=http://hdrlabs.com/news/index.php?id=188635699592187796|title=HDR PhotoStudio sets a new standard for HDR editing|date=Jun 1, 2009|author=Christian Bloch}}{{cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/378633/review/hdr_photostudio.html|title=HDR PhotoStudio Creates Vivid, Detailed Images|date=Jan 13, 2010|author=Sally Wiener Grotta and Daniel Grotta}}{{cite web|url=http://www.webphotos.nl/Pages/Test_2.html|title=Comparison of tone-mapping between HDR PhotoStudio and Photomatix}}

HDR PhotoStudio implemented an advanced HDR image compression format called BEF, and a plug-in for opening and saving files in Adobe Photoshop was also included with the application.{{cite web|url=http://www.unifiedcolor.com/download/Unified_Color_BEF_format.pdf|title=BEF file format}} HDR PhotoStudio was discontinued in July 2010.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

BEF is an HDR image format developed by Unified Color. The BEF format can archive image data with any dynamic range, full human color range, and a quality setting directly tied to color data precision; the used techniques ties it with JND — just noticeable difference parameter.{{cite web|url=http://www.unifiedcolor.com/download/Unified_Color_BEF_format.pdf|title=BEF file format}}