I admit that I am new enough to Linux to not know how to install help files, if they exist, for Krita. Isn't there any? Can't they be sent with the installation?


I also need to do a High Dynamic Range project and I have no idea what I am doing. I also need to document what I do so that other newbies can follow in my footsteps, but the tutorials don't seem to cover HDR, so I am curious about how to go about creating HDR images in Krita.

From what I understand, I need at least 32-bit images. I think I am starting with 16-bit(?) JPEGs and I see that Krita has a number of 32 bit image formats that deal with HDR imaging, too. I can change the image format no problem, but I have no explanation as to why I would want to use any one particular format for this job.

Now what?

Krita 1.6 came with an extensive manual. It did support HDR images, but not bracketing to HDR, which means creating one image out of a set of images with different exposures. As far as I understand -- but I'm not the author of this part of Krita -- you can either combine ordinary images with different exposures in 8 or 16 bit channel depth to a new image with 8 or 16 bit channel depth, or to a new image with 32 bit channel depth.

Krita 2 has basic support for this, but unfortunately I broke that support in the 2.1 release, but it should be fixed for 2.1.1 which has been released this week.

Select Layer/New/HDR Layer from Bracketing, use the Add Image button to add the images with the different exposures and let Krita do the work. It is still very experimental, so it might not work right now.

With 2.1.1 the bracketing to HDR is still broken, unfortunately, the fixes are in for 2.1.2. But there are more fixes needed to make the experience even better, currently, for some reason Krita doesn't read correctly the ISO and aperture settings of the image and you have to input them manually.

OK, I'll look for the old help file. Will version 2 use it directly?

At the moment, I have 2.0.2 installed and when I attempt to "create" the HDR image from bracketing, it stops Krita completely. I don't have the bug reporting stuff installed and it indicates the report is not useful.

I'll presume you know about this problem, from the sounds of things, so I guess I have to ask when you think a working version will be released.

Yes that bug has been fixed now, but the fix has to be released, it is schedule for 2.1.2, which should happen in a month and a half.