HDR workflow feedback/feature requiest.

[shaa...@gmail.com]

First of all big thanx for decades best on market tool!

Last week working on a big pano tour processing in PtGui 13.2 captured in HDR.

And found a lot of UX issues that was not so critical when panorama count is small:

1) Exposure adjustment synchronized between Mask/Control/etc and Panorama View.

Working with HDR image to set a control points is often need to make view brighter but Panorama Editor more verbose when it set to Tone Mapped SDR view.

In that case it required changing exposure every time you need to check panorama or change a CPs. On multi monitor setup this looks even uglier.

If PTGui will remember and use per editor exposure control that will be extremely useful

2) For Control Points and Mask Editors tonemapped preview also can be huge win!

3) Masks and Control Points. Did PTGui has the way to hide masks in control points window? If not, that can help a lot too.

4) Ctrl+/Ctrl- are there but why no Ctrl 0 and Ctrl 1? To Fit image using keyboard or zoom it 100%.

5) Do we have view dragging support in Mask/CP/Crop editors? Photoshop use Space + Mouse drag to temporary switch from any tool to view dragging.

6) Color management: Assign Color Profile option. Sound like PTGui automatically try to guess image color space and Converting to Output Color space on panorama creation.

That not works if image in non sRGB color space but have no color space information inside it. Will be helpful to have Assign Color Profile option, similar to Photoshop, that just tagging existing image to specific color space.

I hope i just read documentation not well, and some of this options are already available :)

Thank you

Best regards

Vlad

[Erik Krause]

Am 27.06.25 um 09:49 schrieb shaa...@gmail.com:

> 1) Exposure adjustment synchronized between Mask/Control/etc and Panorama
> View.
> Working with HDR image to set a control points is often need to make view
> brighter but Panorama Editor more verbose when it set to Tone Mapped SDR
> view.
> In that case it required changing exposure every time you need to check
> panorama or change a CPs. On multi monitor setup this looks even uglier.

On Control Points tab you can activate Auto Contrast for the magnifier.
It's the circular b/w icon down left. But of course that doesn't help in
every case...

> 2) For Control Points and Mask Editors tonemapped preview also can be huge
> win!

If the images are linked for HDR, Control Points and Mask Editor should
display the tonemapped version. On Control Points tab you can choose a
single bracket if you hover the thumbnail on top with the mouse. But
apparently you can't go back this way. Only by selecting "previous /
next blend plane" from the View menu. Joost?

> 3) Masks and Control Points. Did PTGui has the way to hide masks in control
> points window? If not, that can help a lot too.

Should be possible with the Show Mask icon (the paintbrush) down left on
Control Points tab.

> 4) Ctrl+/Ctrl- are there but why no Ctrl 0 and Ctrl 1? To Fit image using
> keyboard or zoom it 100%.

The available keyboard shortcuts are shown in the View menu.

> 5) Do we have view dragging support in Mask/CP/Crop editors? Photoshop use
> Space + Mouse drag to temporary switch from any tool to view dragging.

In Mask and Control Points tab the image can be dragged using the right
mouse button. In Crop tab only the crop region can be dragged, using the
left button.

> 6) Color management: Assign Color Profile option. Sound like PTGui
> automatically try to guess image color space and Converting to Output Color
> space on panorama creation.
> That not works if image in non sRGB color space but have no color space
> information inside it. Will be helpful to have Assign Color Profile option,
> similar to Photoshop, that just tagging existing image to specific color
> space.

Joost will have to answer this one.

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[PTGui Support]

On 6/27/25 14:42, 'Erik Krause' via PTGui Support wrote:
>> 2) For Control Points and Mask Editors tonemapped preview also can be
>> huge
>> win!
>
> If the images are linked for HDR, Control Points and Mask Editor should
> display the tonemapped version. On Control Points tab you can choose a
> single bracket if you hover the thumbnail on top with the mouse. But
> apparently you can't go back this way. Only by selecting "previous /
> next blend plane" from the View menu. Joost?

This is the case for when bracketed source images are used. If you hover
the thumbnails, it should show the merged image first, and then the
individual bracketed images. So you should be able to go back by
clicking the first thumbnail in the popup. The View - Prev/Next Blend
Plane keyboard shortcuts also cycle through this.

When working with single HDR source images, all of this is not available.

>> 6) Color management: Assign Color Profile option. Sound like PTGui
>> automatically try to guess image color space and Converting to Output
>> Color
>> space on panorama creation.
>> That not works if image in non sRGB color space but have no color space
>> information inside it. Will be helpful to have Assign Color Profile
>> option,
>> similar to Photoshop, that just tagging existing image to specific color
>> space.
>
> Joost will have to answer this one.

Correct; images without ICC profile are considered to be sRGB or linear
sRGB (if they are floating point).

I guess color profile tagging might be useful. For my understanding,
where do your images come from and why don't they have a color profile?

Thanks for your feedback, I've added your other requests to the wish list.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

[shaa...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 10:48:56 PM UTC+9 PTGui Support wrote:

On 6/27/25 14:42, 'Erik Krause' via PTGui Support wrote:
>> 2) For Control Points and Mask Editors tonemapped preview also can be
>> huge
>> win!
>
> If the images are linked for HDR, Control Points and Mask Editor should
> display the tonemapped version. On Control Points tab you can choose a
> single bracket if you hover the thumbnail on top with the mouse. But
> apparently you can't go back this way. Only by selecting "previous /
> next blend plane" from the View menu. Joost?

This is the case for when bracketed source images are used. If you hover
the thumbnails, it should show the merged image first, and then the
individual bracketed images. So you should be able to go back by
clicking the first thumbnail in the popup. The View - Prev/Next Blend
Plane keyboard shortcuts also cycle through this.

When working with single HDR source images, all of this is not available. 

Yes, I talking about single 32bit HDR source images. PTGui great, but dedicated HDR merge tools have additional options that are out of PTGui scope.

Like ghost removal or more tricky HDR merging. And that almost 99% of night time captures.

Actually PTGui have another problem with HDR inputs:

It can't find enough control points when float or half float sources are too dark. Especially if some images has different exposition.

 

>> 6) Color management: Assign Color Profile option. Sound like PTGui
>> automatically try to guess image color space and Converting to Output
>> Color
>> space on panorama creation.
>> That not works if image in non sRGB color space but have no color space
>> information inside it. Will be helpful to have Assign Color Profile
>> option,
>> similar to Photoshop, that just tagging existing image to specific color
>> space.
>
> Joost will have to answer this one.

Correct; images without ICC profile are considered to be sRGB or linear
sRGB (if they are floating point).

I guess color profile tagging might be useful. For my understanding,
where do your images come from and why don't they have a color profile?

For example Adobe has internal working wide gamut color space ProPhoto RGB.

PTGui can't merge exposure brackets correctly for some reason. From several HDR Merge tools only one can deliver desired result.

And it color space agnostic in same moment. Just merge values without color space information.

Another situation can be HDRI (.HDR) file format that did not store color profile information.

And last but not least, non-color ST map (vector image). PtGui count it as sRGB and if for some reasons in project was left any other non sRGB color space output will be gamut mapped to sRGB and that will be incorrect ST map (XYZ channels will be mixed).

 

Thanks for your feedback, I've added your other requests to the wish list.

Thank you!

[PTGui Support]

On 6/28/25 16:09, shaa...@gmail.com wrote:
> Actually PTGui have another problem with HDR inputs:
> It can't find enough control points when float or half float sources are
> too dark. Especially if some images has different exposition.

If you could make a set of your images available, this would be helpful
for improving PTGui.

> For example Adobe has internal working wide gamut color space ProPhoto RGB.
> PTGui can't merge exposure brackets correctly for some reason.

Again if you could share your images I'd be happy to look into this.
ProPhoto RGB should work.

[Erik Krause]

Am 28.06.2025 um 15:48 schrieb 'PTGui Support' via PTGui Support:

> This is the case for when bracketed source images are used. If you hover
> the thumbnails, it should show the merged image first, and then the
> individual bracketed images. So you should be able to go back by
> clicking the first thumbnail in the popup. The View - Prev/Next Blend
> Plane keyboard shortcuts also cycle through this.

In 13.2, if I leave the popup and later position the mouse again over
the thumbnail, there is no popup. If I hover a different thumbnail and
then the current one again, it works. If there is no other thumbnail,
like it was for my first test, it doesn't work at all. At least on my
computer. Do you need the System Information?

[shaa...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 11:37:53 PM UTC+9 PTGui Support wrote:

On 6/28/25 16:09, shaa...@gmail.com wrote:
> Actually PTGui have another problem with HDR inputs:
> It can't find enough control points when float or half float sources are
> too dark. Especially if some images has different exposition.

If you could make a set of your images available, this would be helpful
for improving PTGui.

I will check what I can find. Most of the issues I'm having now are with the client capture that was made with one malfunctioning Theta Z1 unit, which unexpectedly added a lot of headaches.

 

> For example Adobe has internal working wide gamut color space ProPhoto RGB.
> PTGui can't merge exposure brackets correctly for some reason.

Again if you could share your images I'd be happy to look into this.
ProPhoto RGB should work.

Problem not in ProPhoto or any other color spaces.

As I understand, there is no "clear" way to disable color management in PtGUI.

Best is remove color space tag from images, switch to Default sRGB and use it as an export option.

In that case PTGui will not apply any color transformations to images, and later in image editor will be easy to re-tag panorama to correct color space.

[PTGui Support]

Hi Erik,

You're right! I see a glitch under Windows. Thanks, this will be fixed.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com