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

I would also love to batch process HDRs in LR for Real Estate photography.  It gets tedious and very time consuming, which is a problem because the pricing is based on the fact that agents are repeat customers, and get lower pricing for their volume than portrait clients.  As they say, efficiency is of the essence... 

I would be happy to donate my own time into the UX/UI to help get this rolling!
PLEASE  make HDR BATCHING a thing!

Nope, I think it is windows only.

I don't think SNS is compatible with Apple ??
True-Not-True??

I tested a few different HDR software and I found that SNS-HDR gives much better results, and it has batch process.  Compared to LR HDRmerge, the highlights in SNS-HDR is extremely better, because SNS-HDR has many more sliders that affect a specific range of the histogram.  It also has realtime preview, which means the image updates instantaneously as you adjust the sliders. I've now changed my workflow to use SNS-HDR for the bracket processing, although it does cost an extra 85 € to buy the software, I think the cost is worth it.  It was much better and more realistic than Photomatix or EasyHDR.  It is a bit slow though, but with the batch function, I start the process and do something else in the meantime.
So first I shoot in RAW with AEB brackets, then in LR I only adjust exposure, highlights (-50), shadows (+30), NR, sharpening, CA removal.  Copy Paste to all and then export to TIFF.  Then bring into SNS-HDR for processing.  It's important not to use Clarity (and maybe Contrast) (or other extreme localized adjustments) because it will not globally affect all bracketed images the same way, which will interfere with the tone mapping in HDR software.

Same boat here as well.

For those of you who like to tinker with scripts, there is an application called AutoHotkey where you can automate all kinds of routine processes on a PC.  Be sure to download the AutoHotkey macro recorder (you may have to search around the internet a bit to find it, or get another version of macro recorder from a third party) but you can basically follow these steps to automate HDR processing in LR using this application.

Before beginning, download and install AutoHotkey http://ahkscript.org/ and this copy which includes the macro recorder (while the link lasts) https://web.archive.org/web/20150908182356/http://www.autohotkey.com/download/AutoHotkey.zip

1. Stack your LR brackets using auto stack (I do a 3 shot bracket on my camera with the timer so they are all within 5-6 seconds, adjust to yours as needed so they stack neatly, check for stack errors before beginning)
2. Run the Macro Recorder and start recording (the first time only, just to write the script)
3. Click your first thumbnail in the timeline (stacked images) and hit CTRL SHIFT H to start the HDR merge (Before you do this you may want to run a manual/GUI HDR merge from the right click menu to make sure the settings in LR are what you want as it repeats your last HDR options with the CTRL SHIFT H keyboard shortcut)
4. stop the macro recorder and save the script somewhere you can find easily (desktop) with the .ahk extension
5 Right click and "edit" your script to add the following:
  A. Move the mouse moves, clicks, window focus, and other commands to the top so they are not repeated in the loop
  B. add the "loop" command and  the number of times to loop the script (100 in my example) to repeat the HDR merge again after advancing:  loop, 100 {   }
  C. Add the "wait" command to wait for the HDR merge to complete before advancing (I set mine to 10000ms but on slow computers you may want to do 20s (20000ms, etc.)
  D. Add a command for "Arrow Key Right" to advance to the next image once the HDR is complete
6. test it out and see what happens by running the script you saved
7. Once your script works, just follow step 1, then run the saved script from wherever you saved it.

Here is an example of my script, yours will have different data depending on what your catalog is named, etc.  I do not offer support on this product so don't ask, but for those willing to figure it out it is worth the time.  You do need to run the macro recorder to get most of this, then add the rest of the info from my script example.


WinWait, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
IfWinNotActive, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library, , WinActivate, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
WinWaitActive, 2016 Catalog - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library,
MouseClick, left,  67,  665
Sleep, 100
Loop, 100
{
Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{SHIFTUP}{CTRLUP}
Sleep, 100000
Send, {RIGHT}
}

Also it would be great if the newly generated HDR images were automatically added to the original images' collection (stacked on top of them would be just perfect, IMHO).

Ok. Here is a more advanced script for series or parallel processing. I found parallel processing is 75% time of series processing. Don't need to play with ratings filter anymore. Only filter by RAW, and either select the first top left image or select no images , then press crl 6 or 7 to start the script.

^6:: ; series processing

Sleep, 1000

MyNumOfSeries := 4

MyNumOfImagesInSet := 3

MyNumOfImagesInSet--

MyWindowName := "catalog6 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library"

MySleepSeries := 8300

MySleepTime := 200

Send, {ALTDOWN}{LEFT}{ALTUP}

Loop, %MyNumOfSeries%

{ IfWinNotActive, %MyWindowName%

{

Pause

}

Loop, %MyNumOfImagesInSet%

{

Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{RIGHT}{SHIFTUP}

}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{CTRLUP}{SHIFTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {ALTDOWN}{RIGHT}{ALTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepSeries%

}

return




^7:: ; parallel processing

Sleep, 1000

MyNumOfSeries := 1

MyNumOfSetsInParallel := 4

MyNumOfImagesInSet := 3

MyNumOfImagesInSet--

MyWindowName := "catalog6 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library"

MySleepSeries := %MyNumOfSetsInParallel% * 4500

MySleepTime := 200

MySleepTimeExtra := 75



Send, {ALTDOWN}{LEFT}{ALTUP}

Loop, %MyNumOfSeries%

{ MySleepTime := 200

Loop, %MyNumOfSetsInParallel%

{

IfWinNotActive, %MyWindowName%

{

Pause

}

Loop, %MyNumOfImagesInSet%

{

Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{RIGHT}{SHIFTUP}

}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {CTRLDOWN}{SHIFTDOWN}h{CTRLUP}{SHIFTUP}

Sleep, %MySleepTime%

Send, {ALTDOWN}{RIGHT}{ALTUP}

MySleepTime += %MySleepTimeExtra%

}

Sleep, %MySleepSeries%

}

return




^0::Pause ; pause on 1st press or resume on 2nd press