Reviews & Articles


HDR pour Aperture et Lightroom
Date: May 2010
By: Mathieu Lavant - Vous et Votre Mac nr. 56
Language: French
    "(...) Avec Hydra, la création d'une image HDR est une opération des plus simple (...)
    C'est à l'étape de la fusion qu'Hydra fait la différence avec d'autres logiciels. Il suffit en effet de cliquer sur l'onglet Fusion du panneau Infos pour afficher instantanément l'aperçu de l'image HDR, (...)
    Simplicité d'emploi, rapidité, qualité du rendu... Difficile de trouver des défauts à Hydra, (...) Hydra est à l'heure actuelle la meilleure solution commerciale pour créer des images HDR à partir de votre gestionnaire de photographies."

Hydra: High Dynamic Range (HDR) Made Easy?
Date: April 3rd 2010
By: sbalani
Language: English
    "(...) The software manages to produce Images in a variety of output options form TIFFS to PSD’s to simple Jpeg’s making it easy to incorporate into any workflow. The quality of the images are of a high enough caliber to compete with Photomatix, although it may not be as visible thru these Images due to the compression for web, but Noise Levels are low, and detail and sharpness is well maintained, as well as colors. (...)"

Hydra, l’HDR reso facilepastedgraphic-329
Date: March 22nd 2010
By: Tiziano Dal Betto
Language: Italian
    "(...) Ho provato per voi Hydra, prendendo a prestito le immagini che possono essere trovate nella pagina di Wikipedia in inglese sull’argomento HDR, e il risultato finale è, effettivamente, molto buono. (...) Ottenere un risultato come questo è semplice e automatico. (...)"

Software Review: Hydra 2.1.3
Date: October 7th 2009
By: Paul Fatula
Language: English
    "(...) Hydra can produce good quality images with better dynamic range than your camera can manage alone, with a minimum of user effort. If you tend to think of post-processing digital images as more of a pain than a pleasure, Hydra may well be your least painful route to HDR images."

[La HDR sur Mac] La HDR dans Hydra
Date: September 4th 2009
By: Anthony Nelzin
Language: French
    "(...) J'applaudis par contre son excellent module d'alignement des images, et le fait qu'il produise des images moins bruitées que ces concurrents (il doit jouer sur le micro-contraste), sans même parler du fait qu'il fait partie des tous premiers logiciels à utiliser les nouvelles technologies de Snow Leopard pour accélérer son fonctionnement. (...)"

Creaceed, du HDR sur mac avec Hydra
Date: June 1st 2009
By: SLB
Language: French
    "(...) Ses qualités?
    • Léger
    • Design à la Apple
    • C'est du Belge, l'application est donc en Français
    • Rapide et simple d'utilisation pour du soft hdr
    • Plugin Aperture (...)"

Resenha: Hydra cria imagens HDR em aplicativo para o Mac OS X ou plugin para o Aperture
Date: May 31st 2009
By: Rafael Fischmann
Language: Portuguese
    "(...) O Hydra é oferecido pela Creaceed em duas versões: uma independente, em software para o Mac OS X, e outra em formato de plugin para o Aperture, o gerenciador de fotografias profissional da Apple. Visto que o funcionamento de ambos é idêntico, optei por este último, já que sou um usuário de longa data do Aperture. (...)"

Hydra, un logiciel HDR pour Mac
Date: May 13th 2009
By: Entraks
Language: French
    "(...) la dernière version d'Hydra a apporté beaucoup d'améliorations par rapport à l'ancienne version: prévisualisation plus rapide, alignement des photos meilleur, sauvegarde plus rapide... (...)
    On aime:
    • L'interface "user-friendly", très aisé à utiliser. Bien conçu pour les Mac
    • Le rendu HDR généré qui préserve la qualité des images
    • L'outil Alignement
    • Le logiciel en Français
    (...)"

Hydra 2 Review
Date: March 8th 2009
By: David Sparks
Language: English
    "(...) Whenever discussing HDR software, you can not ignore the 800 pound gorilla, Photomatix. I’ve owned Photomatix for some time. While there are several new tools to fine tune your image in Hydra, Photomatix still has more granular control than Hydra. However, Photomatix also is more expensive, comes with a steeper learning curve, and takes longer to use.

    Even though I own a license to Photomatix, I’ve done all of my HDR work in the past six months through Hydra. Without really thinking about it, I’ve discovered the speed, ease of use, and ability to perform the HDR function from within Aperture outweighs any benefits from the additional features in Photomatix. If you want to try your hand at HDR, give Hydra a chance. The pictures look stunning and there is no pain involved in operation.(...)"

Hydra 2.0
Date: March 3rd 2009
By: Richard Geiger
Language: English
    "(...) Creaceed has a great manual in the PDF format. The manual was easy to read and helped the user to understand the program. I was pleased that company spent the time to write a manual. In this day and age many software companies only have a help database that you have to search through to find the answers to your questions.

    Hydra 2.0 is an easy to use HDR program that will help you capture photographs that you have not been easily able to do in the past. Most people would not have attempted to take certain pictures because it was too hard for the average user to pull off. Hydra 2.0 changes the game for the average user to make good photographs in high contrasts areas. The cost of the program makes it is reasonable for most users."


How To Make Your Photos Look Better Than They Look
Date: February 9th 2009
By: Alexis Kayhill
Language: English
    "(...) An easy, simple, almost self-explanatory interface. If you can handle iPhoto, you can handle Hydra. You also get output photos with stunning richness, the whole reason to add higher dynamic range to a photo.
    The end result is photos which look more like the photos you used to envy but now show up on your Mac as your own creation. (...)
    There are other Mac apps and utilities which improve photos, though each reaches a point of diminishing returns for the wannabe pro in each of us. Hydra is easier to use than most, provides similar HDR output, and costs less. (...)"

Hydra 2.0.1: HDR images in Aperture and beyond
Date: February 5th 2009
By: Erik Vlietinck
Language: English
    "(...) Hydra 2.0.1 is almost as good as Photomatix. (...)
    Which to choose, Hydra or Photomatix, depends on what you want from a HDR application. If it’s ease-of-use, excellent alignment features, great output quality, and the choice to use it as an Aperture plug-in and/or a stand-alone program, then Hydra 2.0.1 certainly is the way to go. If you favour additional controls that can improve the output but only slightly so, then Photomatix remains the application to beat.
    Personally, I don’t think the difference between the two is important enough to justify the steeper learning curve Photomatix forces upon you."

Christmas Lights & HDR
Date: January 15th 2009
By: a user like you!
Language: English
    "(...) When Hydra 2.0 shipped at MacWorld, I upgraded and re-processed the images. The results were much better!
    Specifically, the images are considerably sharper with a better balance of light and dark.
    Overall, I’m quite happy with Hydra. Fewer fiddly knobs and it serves my needs exactly. (...)"

Hydra 1.6pastedgraphic-15
Date: October 2nd 2008
By: Guy Okada
Language: English
    "(...) Creating HDR images is a deliberate process thus I find this product to be for serious or professional photographers who work at taking “strong” images and when blended in Hydra 1.6 can produce striking results.
    I found the application easy to use and it has great potential. (...)"

Hydra: HDR-Aufnahmen ohne Stativ erzeugen
Date: September 1st 2008
Language: German

    "(...) Mit Hydra ist es gelungen, Freihandaufnahmen für die HDR-Umwandlung nutzen zu können. Die Zusammensetzung der Bilder erfolgt im Automatikbetrieb meist schon so gut, dass keine oder nur geringe Nacharbeiten notwendig sind. Die Verarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit von Hydra und dessen einfache Bedienung ist ein weiterer Pluspunkt des Programms.
    Im Wesentlichen hängen die erzielbaren Ergebnisse von der Qualität des Rohmaterials ab. Wurde die Belichtungsreihe korrekt angefertigt, sieht auch das Endergebnis meist gut aus."

La prova di Hydra 1.6: HDR su Aperture
Date: August 17th 2008
By: Giuseppe Angelè
Language: Italian
    "Prima considerazione a bruciapelo: ci è piaciuto molto, per le sue caratteristiche e funzionalità. (...)
    Una delle particolarità dei Hydra è la possibilità di effettuare un allineamento manuale delle immagini, utile soprattutto negli scatti a mano libera usando l’esposizione a forcella. (...)
    Un’altro aspetto di Hydra è la grafica particolarmente amichevole e pulita, che lo rende molto “Apple-style”, perfettamente in sintonia con Aperture. (...)
    Le impressioni su Hydra 1.6 sono molto buone, un programma veloce, con una interfaccia pulita e intuitiva che si integra in maniera eccellente con Aperture, come se fosse una semplice finestra del programma Apple. Gli aspetti che hanno maggiormente impressionato sono proprio la maggiore velocità e flessibilità rispetto a PhotomatixPro, anche se quest’ulltimo vanta un maggior numero di impostazioni. Il prezzo contenuto, inoltre, assegna un altro punto a suo favore."

Hydra 1.6
Date: August 17th 2008
By: Erik Vlietinck
Language: English
    "(...) Although Hydra here offers a very cleverly designed control set to change the blending, the software is excellent at guessing the best blend of images to achieve a realistic effect. (...)
    These controls allowed me to fine-tune images with good results, and as Hydra 1.5 aims at making HDR output as easy as possible, I was perfectly happy with those results. (...)"


Hydra HDR Software Review
Date: August 9th 2008
By: David Sparks
Language: English
    "(...) The software aligns the images for you. (...) My tests with this feature showed that it did actually worked and, generally, the automatic alignment did much better than my manual attempts. (...)
    you are not looking for the most complex program but still want to make nice HDR images, Hydra may be in your sweet spot. Another point in Hydra’s favor is that it was created by a Mac developer and looks like it. It has a nice interface and doesn’t feel clunky like so many multiplatform applications."

Tutoriel création photo HDR avec Hydra 1.6
Date: August 8th 2008
By: Pierre-Henry Muller
Language: French


Im Test: HDR-Applikation Hydra
Date: August 6th .2008
By: Felix Rieseberg
Language: German
    "(...) Insgesamt kann Hydra überzeugen und bietet vor allem für Hobbyfotografen Möglichkeiten. Die groß beworbene Funktion der Stativfreiheit funktioniert nicht perfekt, kann im großen und ganzen jedoch das Versprechen einhalten. (...)"


Creaceed lança versào 1.6 do Hydra, plugin HDR para o Aperture
Date: July 31st 2008
By: Rafael Fischmann
Language: Portuguese


Aperture-HDR-Plug-in Hydra von Creaceed
Date: July 24th 2008
By: Jörn Daberkow
Language: German
    "(...) Ich finde Hydra sehr gut gelungen. Die Regler lassen sich feinfühlig steuern und die Ergebnisse sind exzellent. Man braucht keine externe Anwendung für HDR-Fotos mehr zu starten. Den Preis von 39,95 Euro kann ich nur als sehr günstig bezeichnen, denn HDR-Technik macht aus einfachen Fotos besondere Fotos. (...)"

HDR comes to Aperture with Creaceed's Hydra
Date: May 27th 2008
By: Dominique James
Language: English
    "(...) Hydra takes advantage of many of Leopard’s latest core technologies. With this kind of optimization, the software offers many functionalities at an incredible speed. And, because it has been developed with Apple’s methodology in mind, Hydra definitely integrates and works well with other software, which makes it a seamless part of the chain in various workflows. (...)"

Tools you can use: software Hydra - Seeing in the Dark
Date: Early 2008
By: Pat St. Clair
Language: English
    "(...) Hydra is very easy to use, yet it provides a good level of control over the results. I believe this is a product you should put on your list to consider. (...)
    (...) I particularly liked the degree of control the blending tools provided, and I liked that I could fix a mis-match by adding points manually in selected areas of the photo, and by using the "adjust points" mechanism. (...)"