P: Ability to batch process Photo Merge (HDR and panorama)

Feature Request: Ability to select multiple stacks that contain bracketed images — then to batch process the stacks to create HDR images overnight. Currently — doing this by hand is time consuming and inefficient. Thank you. —Erik

The HDR is so good I've been using it to reduce the number of "second-run" photos in my library (photos that might be useful later, but weren't picked and processed in the first pass). What I've been doing is selecting the three photos of the stack, pressing Shift-Ctrl-H, and then X to delete the three photos. A while later, the HDR version appears in their place, but I've already moved on to the next set.

Then I can later make another pass looking at only the HDR version, and decide whether to keep or delete. The HDR just gives me a better idea of the photos potential than looking at any of the three exposures. It also means I don't have to decide which exposure is best...which is time consuming too in LR.

But now I can only do 6-7 stacks at a time, before LR bogs down. A batch feature, or queuing them rather than trying to do all the processing at once, would be wonderful. (A batch version differs from queing in that I could just select a bunch of stacks and tell it to process them!

Couldn't agree more. The HDR is so good, the lack of batch is infuriating. Just responding to keep this thread busy. The more we grumble, the more noticeable we are, right?

Agreed, just as I wrote.

We still need a real batch function. Shift + Ctrl + H is only good enough for a few photos...

Yeah, this works great!! I do this every day, but when I do 5+ at the same time the entire computer becomes a slug :)

Just adding a queue function would be perfect. So only 2-3 are generated at a time.

As a partial workaround to speed up your workflow, put each set of photos to be merged into a stack, and collapse the stack. Select the top photo of the stack and do Shift + Ctrl + H to start the merge with the previous settings. You can then start additional merges the same way, running at the same time. (Normally, when you apply a LR command to the top photo of a collapsed stack, it applies to just the top photo. But Photo > Photo Merge is an exception.)

This isn't as useful as what many are asking for in this thread, but it has helped many to speed their work.

Hi!
We are missing a batch processor for generating HDR in Lightroom. Can you please add this in future update? We produce so many images daily so we can not use Lightroom until the batch function is added. This is an absolute must to have since your rival programs have it!

+1 for LR HDR batch processing

REALLY NEED IT !

Whenever I am batch generating 5+ HDR images at a time, lightroom and the entire PC system in general becomes sluggish and slower than a snail.

The problem is that Lightroom is trying to generate ALL the HDR images at the same time.

What I would love to see is an option to choose the amount of HDR images lightroom is generating at the same time. The rest would queue up and start once another was finished. 3 at a time would be good start.

(For those who dont know, you can use Ctrl+Shift+H to merge to HDR without that popup window.)

PS: Lightroom tends to CRASH when doing more than 7+ HDR merges. Which adds value to my idea of a queue....