Working with RAW files
Photomatix processes RAW files for the purpose of creating HDR images that you can then tone map. It does not processes RAW files with the Exposure Blending functions.
When you select RAW files to generate the HDR image, Photomatix will show additional options on the "Generate HDR" dialog:
- | White Balance: By default, Photomatix will use the "As Shot" White Balance (the one read in the Exif metadata) when converting the RAW data to HDR. You can adjust the White Balance by selecting a pre-defined white balance or specify the color temperature in Kelvin. A preview lets you see the effect of the change on the source image. You can configure the default white balance in the Default Options.
- | Color primaries: The RAW data are in a color space specific to the camera. Photomatix will convert the data into a standardized color space, by default Adobe RGB, but you can select sRGB or ProPhoto RGB instead. It is important to note that the selected color space is used for its color primaries only, and not for its tone reproduction curve. Since HDR image are in linear space, they do not have a tone curve. The tone curve of the profile associated with the image will only be applied in the tone mapping step, and never to the HDR image itself.
Photomatix also allows you to process a single RAW file into an image stored with a 32-bit HDR image format. Please note though that an image created with a single RAW file can not really be considered High Dynamic Range. It is a rather a pseudo-HDR image. The important characteristics of this pseudo-HDR image is that it is unprocessed. Its dynamic range however is not much different from the range of an already converted file. If you want to produce a "real" HDR image, you will need to combine differently exposed shots.
One issue caused by the relatively low dynamic range available in a single RAW file is that the pseudo-HDR image will often be noisy. To achieve a lower noise level, we recommend exposing for the shadows when taking the RAW image, i.e. to overexpose your shot. Even though the histogram of your camera may indicate that the highlights will be lost, you should still be able to recover them during RAW conversion -- unless the dynamic range of the scene is too high, but then a single RAW will not be sufficient and you would need to take multiple exposures.

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