FUNDAMENTALShttp://www.digitalcameraworld.com MARCH 2020 DIGITAL CAMERA^77
1
Stack the
shots
Start in the Library
Module. In the Grid,
select the entire set of photos you want merged. To get
ready for the batch merge, you’ll need to stack the photos.
Assuming you’ve shot them with your camera’s auto-
bracketing feature, the time to shoot the brackets will be
short compared to the gap between manually shot photos.
This means you can use the Auto Stack by Time from
Lightroom’s Photo > Stacking menu. Here it’s set to two
seconds, and all photos have stacked. Note there is a mix
of five- and three-image brackets here, so this is great.2
Merge the exposures
To get the preferred settings for
your batch HDR, you’ll need to do
one set via the HDR Merge dialog.
All future batch merges will take
these settings until you make a
further change in this dialog box.
Go to Photo > Merge to HDR. In
the dialog box, choose the settings you want. Here I have
ticked Auto Align, Auto Settings and Create Stack. As these
images have reasonable shutter times, I’ve left Deghosting
off. Run the merge, then select the remaining stacks and
click Ctrl+H to run a merge queue.3
Fix the perspective
Going back to the first HDR, you can
apply a transform fix to correct any
perspective issues. In the Transform
panel, select the Auto button in the
Upright section. This applies a general
fix of perspective to the photo, which
works as the best batch-processing
option. You can always change this later, but it’s easier to
correct a few images where it didn’t work, instead of applying
the right settings individually to every image. It also doesn’t
matter if it makes a big change in this photograph, but it
will to other photos in the next step.4
Apply a preset
To apply the Auto Upright corrections to the rest of the
photos, it’s best to use a Preset. Essentially you’re making
this preset once, and it will work for all future HDR batch jobs.
To make any preset, go to Develop > New Preset in the
Develop Module. Click Check None to remove all settings.
In Transform, choose Upright Mode, which is what applies
the button press. Tick Transform Adjustments as well.
Avoid Upright Transforms in this instance: this applies the
current settings that Auto Upright created for this image to
all images, rather than just having Auto work it out for each
image. Create the preset and apply it to all of the stacks
from the Presets panel to finish.