Can I use a single photo?
Photomatix Essentials is intended for HDR processing of high contrast scenes. Capturing a high contrast scene requires taking several exposures of the scene.
Photomatix Essentials will merge the exposures of your scene and let you adjust the result to your liking. You can either adjust the settings of the merge process itself with Exposure Fusion, or adjust the settings of the merged result into a 32-bit HDR image with Tone Mapping.
It is still possible to adjust the setting of a single photo with Tone Mapping, instead of a 32-bit HDR image merged from several exposures. You can thus use Photomatix Essentials to process a single photo, though this processing is not "HDR" properly speaking. When your subject is high contrast, processing a single photo is unlikely to give you the results you would have with processing several exposures.
To process a single photo with Tone Mapping:
1. | Drag & drop your photo (or click on the "Browse..." button to select it)
2. | Check the box to the left of the photo and click on and click on the "Next..." button.