Can Lightroom HDR Merge change how strongly it compresses dynamic range?
Asked 10/23/2017
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When I merge bracketed exposures in Lightroom Classic using Photo Merge > HDR, the merged result still shows very bright highlights and very dark shadows. I can recover a lot afterward with edits like lowering highlights/whites and raising shadows, but I was expecting the merge itself to produce a more compressed, tone-mapped look.
Is there any setting in Lightroom HDR Merge that lets me control the amount of dynamic-range compression or tone mapping during the merge? Or is the intended workflow to merge first and then do that compression manually afterward?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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The workflow commonly thought of when talking about "HDR" consists of two steps:
- combining multiple image to one High Dynamic Range image which encompasses (hopefully) the whole DR of the scene, which is more than a single shot can capture. It is also more than ordinary output methods/devices can reproduce.
- tone-mapping that image into a representation with lowered DR so we can actually enjoy the scene on a monitor or print.
Lightroom composes your images to one HDR image. I.e., an image that has high dynamic range, not a tone-mapped, compressed dynamic range representation of it. You can process this HDR image any way you like afterwards, eg. by pulling down highlights and pushing shadows, which is one way of tone-mapping to a lower dynamic range.
The point is that the automatic merge process only produces the equivalent of a RAW image for you, leaving all options for development open for you.
Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32110
8y ago
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Not really. Lightroom’s HDR Merge is primarily creating a higher-dynamic-range source image, not applying a strong tone-mapped/compressed look during the merge.
In other words, there are two separate steps:
- Merge the bracketed shots into one HDR image containing more scene data.
- Tone-map/compress that range so it looks the way you want on a screen or print.
Lightroom mainly handles step 1 in the merge, then expects you to do step 2 with normal editing controls afterward—highlights, whites, shadows, blacks, curves, local adjustments, etc.
So if the merged file still looks too contrasty, that does not necessarily mean the merge failed; it means Lightroom is leaving the tone mapping mostly to your edits. There isn’t a merge setting for “compress more” in the way you’re asking.
If you want a more dramatic HDR-style rendering automatically, you’d typically need to do more post-processing after the merge, or use software designed for stronger tone mapping aesthetics.
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