HDR merge lowered MP of photo

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 25, 2021
2 replies
1212 views

Hi everyone, first post here. I cont see to figure out what I did wrong but after doing a HDR merge of 3 photos the MP went from about 20mp (5568x3712) to 4mp(2542x1695). I did this on my windows computer but took screen shots of the file data on my phone. Please see attached pictures with the photo data on them. If anything I would think stacking photos into a HDR merge would create a higher quality photo not a lower quality one.... thanks for the help!

Windows

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Correct answer Jao vdL

Ah. Yeah it probably merged the smart previews instead of the full raw files. I would try again making sure the full raw has been downloaded.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

The HDR file appears to be a smart preview since it has a long edge dimension of 2560 pixels which is typical for smart previews. Did you do the merge in Lightroom Classic by any chance? Classic can only upload smart previews.

Ken SwensonAuthor

Participant

That's for the response. I used the newer Lightroom that has the cloud backup not the classic one. But your making me wonder if I did the merge on my laptop or desktop.... I believe they are supposed to synchronize with the cloud version I'm using so I don't know if that would make a difference or not. I do know I loaded the original photos on the laptop while I was traveling, but I'm not sure if I did the HDR merge while traveling or after I got home.