ENHANCE WITH HDR PHOTO MERGE
5 There are several options on the HDR Merge Preview panel.
Auto Align is useful if you captured your shots without
a tripod, as it attempts to match up the images and align the
frames automatically; so you may as well leave it checked. Auto
Tone is also useful: it attempts to automatically correct any tonal
differences between the frames.
6
Sometimes, even if you use a tripod, details may change
between exposures, such as people moving about. The
Deghost Amount options attempt to minimise this. If your
scene is static you can leave it set to None. If you use any
other option, use the Show Ghost Overlay option to see what
changes have been made.
9
Lightroom’s HDR Merge function differs from the similar
function in Photoshop in one crucial way. Where Photoshop
generates a pixel-based document from JPEG images, Lightroom
can create HDR images from raw files, retaining all the extra
bit-depth and editing flexibility. That gives you a lot more scope
when editing the merged image.7 Once you’re satisfied with your selected options, click on
the Merge button and Lightroom will begin processing
your images into a single HDR image. The process is fairly
quick and even if you’ve used five or six large files it will only
take a few seconds. You can see a progress bar in the top left
corner of the screen.
10 If you open your HDR Merged image in the Develop
module, you can see that it has much greater flexibility in
exposure latitude than the source images; and you can perform
the same editing functions on it as any other image. Used in this
way HDR imaging becomes a useful tool rather than another
trendy filter effect.8 Once the HDR Merge is complete, it will appear in your
Library. If you compare it with your base source images
you’ll see that it has combined the highlight detail of the
under-exposed image with the shadow detail of the over-
exposed image, resulting in clear detail right across the image,
with no burned-out highlights or murky shadows.http://www.bdmpublications.com 85