MacPhun has released a nice update to its popular Aurora HDR Pro app, designed to give Mac users the ability to easily turn their digital photos into impressive high dynamic range images. With the latest version, Aurora HDR Pro ($100) now includes an extension for the OS X Photos app, allowing you to seamlessly take advantage of the app’s capabilities to round-trip photos without leaving the app, and even sync favorite presets with the main app. Editing tools and presets have been enhanced for various photography styles and settings, making it really easy to instantly transform photos for various settings without having to fuss with detailed settings. Though users who like to tweak and experiment with detailed adjustments can still do so with the broad range of editing tools available, allowing you to start out with a preset to get the general look you’re seeking and then adjust from there.
Additional enhancements in version 1.2.2 include performance improvements to the Photos extension, alignment, luminosity histogram, and layer previews, tone mapping results as defaults, launching in full screen mode, and support for a whole new set of RAW formats from Canon, Leica, Nikon, Olympus, and more. For users on a budget, Aurora HDR is also available as a $50 standard version via the Mac App Store, although this basic version omits support for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Apple Aperture plug-ins, ghost reduction, native RAW and PSD file support, and the Trey Ratcliff signature HDR presets.