# Merge to HDR Question



## canyonlight (Aug 11, 2016)

When I select a number of images for Merge to HDR the merge process does not seem to recognize the edits I've done to individual images before the merge. Is there a way to do that?

I was performing preliminary edits (like dust spot removal) to one of the source images, syncing the develop settings on all the source images, and then merging to HDR.


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 11, 2016)

You have to merge first and edit later, but of course you can sync the edits with the merged result too.


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## tspear (Aug 11, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> You have to merge first and edit later, but of course you can sync the edits with the merged result too.



I have tried sync after merging, so far it has not worked well for me. Do you know any descent examples of what works and does not work well?


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 11, 2016)

tspear said:


> I have tried sync after merging, so far it has not worked well for me. Do you know any descent examples of what works and does not work well?



Because the merged files are aligned, the resulting HDR file can be slightly misaligned with the original images if you didn't use a tripod. That means that something like spot removal must be done on the HDR file itself if you shot hand-held. Most other things should sync just fine.


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 11, 2016)

I have found that HDR merge will always use the unmodified raw capture. At first I thought this was a problem but now I think it is a feature. I don't think I want my editing efforts to accidentally hide image information from the merge.

The resulting 32 bit DNG file has so much latitude that you can pretty much whip the develop controls any which way you want to tease out the resulting image. 

Maybe someone in the know can confirm this observation.

-louie


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 11, 2016)

I believe the OP just observed that, and started this thread because of that observation.


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 11, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> Because the merged files are aligned, the resulting HDR file can be slightly misaligned with the original images if you didn't use a tripod. That means that something like spot removal must be done on the HDR file itself if you shot hand-held. Most other things should sync just fine.



Johan, I have found that tone adjustments are also ignored in the HDR merge. Since tone adjustments made on individual raw files would probably not be appropriate to the merged file I don't understand your last sentence. 

-louie


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 11, 2016)

LouieSherwin said:


> Johan, I have found that tone adjustments are also ignored in the HDR merge. Since tone adjustments made on individual raw files would probably not be appropriate to the merged file I don't understand your last sentence.



I'm not talking about adjustments on individual files that *get applied* to the HDR file during merging. Like you observed, nothing gets applied. I'm talking about *synching* adjustments from individual files to the merged result *after* merging. Of course you can do that, but because of the alignment issue it may not be very effective with spot removal.


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 11, 2016)

P.S. I agree that synching tone adjustments between LDR and HDR files is not very useful, but you could sync crop, horizontal adjustment, perspective transformations, effect filters, etc.


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## tspear (Aug 12, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> P.S. I agree that synching tone adjustments between LDR and HDR files is not very useful, but you could sync crop, horizontal adjustment, perspective transformations, effect filters, etc.



I was trying to sync from transform, temp, exposures... Plus a few gradients I had created. And this was all shot with a tripod. I actually never do spot removal because I suck at it.


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 12, 2016)

tspear said:


> I was trying to sync from transform, temp, exposures... Plus a few gradients I had created. And this was all shot with a tripod. I actually never do spot removal because I suck at it.



Synching of Temperature and Transformation between LDR and HDR images should be fine. Synching Exposure is not useful at all, because the 'Exposure' of the merged HDR image is completely different and has a much wider range (that's the whole idea of HDR...). Gradients probably depend on what you apply in that gradient. If it's Exposure, you have the same problem.


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## canyonlight (Aug 13, 2016)

UH...okay. Thanks. Sounds like one needs to merge first then edit the 32 bit DNG.


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