HDR Photomerge workflow is inane (re: stacks)

[Jeff_Warner]

Perhaps this is not a bug, but intended, but I cannot fathom why it would be. 

I want to make an HDR Panorama, but due to LR's many problems with doing that with a single step (i.e. selecting all the bracketed images, then 'Merge to HDR Pano', which often results in a stall or very long wait) I've been forced to first make the HDR images from the brackets, and then Merge to Panorama. Of course, it makes sense to stack the HDR image with its bracketed components when making the HDR, and this is where the problem comes in. If I select all the component HDR images in their stacks (collapsed), and then click Merge to Panorama, it tries to re-HDR the images, rather than just using the HDR images I've selected to build the pano. The workaround for me has been to (try to!) remember to expand the stacks first, which then allows the Merge to Panorama to complete normally; this is a pain, and is easy to forget to do.

Being the that the new DNG files are tagged as an HDR image right in the filename, why in the world does LR try to re-HDR the stacks (including the HDR image)? It really makes zero sense to me. This has been happening for years, and it just seems like it's an oversight.

[JohanElzenga]

Here's an idea: Create a filter that filters on HDR in the file name. Then all you need to do is activate the filter after you have created the HDR images, so you'll only see the HDR images that you can then merge to panorama.

[GoldingD]

First up, yes the Photo merge HDR PANO is lacking, one would hope for improvements, but so far NADA.

So, a work around.

• As to avoid confusion with other images, other stacks, move the stack you want to work on to a separate folder, perhaps you could name it Stacks.
• Unstack those photos. Yes, unstack.
• Stack them again using the option to  Auto-Stack by capture time, goal being to separate HDR sets.
• Optional, expand all stacks, and change the color label for each set of stacks, should you want to re-stack them all together later.
• Optionally you can close the stacks if you expanded them after stacking, they do not need to be expanded to merge.
• Accomplish a Photo Merge HDR on each stack (and remember if they can all use the same settings you can use the keyboard shortcut to merge HDR using same settings) This will give you intermediate images, HDR merged images.
• Then select the resultant images and accomplish the Photo Merge Pano.
• Do you keep the resultant intermediate Photo Merge HDR images? Hard to say, some may ant that hard drive space back.

Yes, convoluted.

[Jeff_Warner]

Thaks for the workarounds, but I already have workarounds in place, as I do this stuff every day. I'd prefer Adobe update how they approach 'merging' stacks that have already been rendered as HDR, and the resulting HDR.dng is sitting at the top of the stack. The current behavior of LR trying to re-create the wheel (and then failing) just doesn't make any sense.