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

[ColinMcD]

Now that we have HDR inside Lightroom, with virtually no user input, the next step is surely a batch facility for a folder full of bracketed images.
Please!!!!

[naestyoh]

Can photomatix do the batch merge into 32-bit and then you bring those files into LR?

[naestyoh]

Yes, I just tested this. You can batch raw files into 32-bit unprocessed .hdr radiance files. You then select all of them and open in Preview. In Preview, you select all thumbnails and export to file. Choose TIFF. Import the new 32-bit TIFF into LR and do your perspective corrections and paint out the windows. 

[naestyoh]

UPDATE: While the process I describe just above does give you quick 32-bit TIFF files, there's considerable color shifting going on. This batch method can't touch the native HDR to DNG in LR. Adobe just needs to implement the batching like Photomatix: Select all shots you want to use as sources. Choose to allow LR to discover how many bracketed shots there were or force it to be within two numbers (for me it's either dual or triple shots), choose the time between each bracket set just like auto-stacking does currently, let me choose how many simultanious HDRs are processed (or auto because LR can see how many cores I have, right?), choose to auto-generate a smart preview for each and then click [GO]. 

LR >needs< HDR and PANO decal stamps on thumbnails for quick ID when mixed among other raw/jpg/etc master files. 

I also need a waaaay more aggressive shadow and highlight slider in Develop. I can take down the windows a bit, but when I paint them out I can drop them several stops back into blue skies. Beef up the shadow and highlight sliders when they detect an HDR image. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Another real estate photographer here wishing for HDR batch processing in Lightroom.

[Jarno__]

+1 for HDR / Panorama batch processing. Needs to be automatically determine which shots are bracketed even there are more than 3 photos in the bracket. 

[CharlieFuzz]

@JarnoP.
You can try using stacks to help group your images together by capture time. 

After you select "Auto stack by capture time"  you can adjust the capture time to fit within your time between shots. I find this helps me when doing HDR panos as well, as other hdr shots. I would really like them to get on the ball with pushing a better automated features for us regarding batch processing. For now stacking and quick keys is all we have. Hope this helps! 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Please add HDR support to the plugin SDK API!  I would particularly love to see the ability to create an HDR through the plugin API -- this will allow users to create plugins with more advanced batch processing control, even automatically detecting and grouping HDRs.  I'll make a plugin for this as soon as it's supported. 

This seems like the least effort for the Lightroom team as well -- just add the ability to call the headless mode HDR system with a list of photos to merge, a table with the settings, and a callback that reports the resulting image.

[SirOracle]

Exactly! Please help us!

[SirOracle]

Real estate photographer here. Please bring batch processing to Lightroom! I'm not thrilled with using Photomatix.. I wish I could just stay in LR for the entire workflow.

[naestyoh]

photomatix bites. I've used it before... LR results are so much more realistic. LR just needs to do a bit more with helping punch out the windows. The exposure is there and I shouldn't have to paint it out... I'd like that before batching, TBH.

[billyray1usa]

I have recently purchased AuroraHDR 2018. The latest version works on Windows. The MAC version already supports batch processing and the software vendor has promised batch processing on Windows by the end of the year. The results are really quite good and the software works well with presets. It also has detailed controls for photographers that like to drill down into the advanced settings.

[johnrellis]

This is now implemented in LR 7.  According to Lightroom Queen Victoria Bampton,  "Multiple merge operations are now added to a job queue behind the scenes to avoid impacting UI responsiveness."  

This lets you initiate many merges -- dozens or hundreds -- and LR will process them one at a time.   LR will show you the progress of the merges when you click the progress bar in the upper left corner:



To prepare a large batch of merges using the last-used merge settings:

1. Stack each set of photos to be merged.

2. Do Photo > Stacking > Collapse All Stacks.

3. Select each stack in turn and do Shift + Ctrl + H ("headless merge").

Unfortunately, you can't select all of the stacks and do Shift + Ctrl + H -- LR gives "An internal error has occurred".    You have to select each in turn and start the merge.  

Sigh, it seems like whoever designed this improvement didn't stop to actually think how it might be used. But overall, it's a considerable improvement for doing large batches of merges.

[RetouchCanada]

I noticed this as well. It would be nice if there was a setting for us to set how many merge operations we would like to perform at once. I don't mind doing headless merges for now but if we could at least set it to do x amount at a time it would be a big step in the right direction.

[johnrellis]

I filed this bug report on the internal error when trying to initiate multiple merges simultaneously: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-internal-error-when-initiating-mult...  Please add your me-too vote and detailed opinion.

[th14555112]

It still means having to possibly press ctrl+shif+ H one thousand times. But theoretically it won't crash or slow down because of the simultaneous jobs.  The AutoHotKey may actually work now without the lag and having to put in an exponential delay in the script.  But I switched to SNS-HDR for my merge a while ago because it has a good batch function and gives much better results than Lightroom.  I think the cost for SNS-HDR was low compared to what you get.

[johnrellis]

"It still means having to possibly press ctrl+shift + H one thousand times. "

Right -- I filed a bug report on that (see above).  Maybe they'll fix it in LR Classic 8 :-<

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I was hoping for an HDR batch feature in new Lightroom Classic but again I'm disappointed 😞
Doing a lot of HDR images is a painful procedure - pressing ctrl-shift-H a hundred of times is annoying. 

Is this really so difficult to realize? "Open folder "xyz", take the first 3 images - merge them to HDR - take the next 3 images ...

[Stidi]

This better HDR batch handling is good, but please create way to add directly many stacks to HDR batch.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

+1 (times 1000x!) for HDR batch processing please. I do hundreds and sometimes thousands of batches in Photomatix at a time for timelapse, real estate, and drone photos. Outputting to EXR w/ Photomatix is okay, but if I could stay in 32bit DNG I'd be far far happier. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Just tested, quick and dirty AutoHotkey script with 1 second between key presses successfully queued up 588 stacks. I started at the end and moved towards the front so the files that finish processing wouldn't bump anything down and screw up the pattern. 

It's slow as all get out, tho, as noted above it would be nice to run them in parallel, I think it is going to take like 6-8 hours to process. The same job to 32bit EXR only using Photomatix would take maybe an hour, max, especially as these are only 5.5MP sRAW. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Just tested, quick and dirty AutoHotkey script with 1 second between key presses successfully queued up 588 stacks. I started at the end and moved towards the front so the files that finish processing wouldn't bump anything down and screw up the pattern. 

It's slow as all get out, tho, as noted above it would be nice to run them in parallel, I think it is going to take like 6-8 hours to process. The same job to 32bit EXR only using Photomatix would take maybe an hour, max, especially as these are only 5.5MP sRAW. 

[frostyfriday]

Don't hold your breath. It has taken over 3 years to get to this stage.
I know dozens of commercial photographers who have to go to all sorts of idiotic work arounds to get what should be a simple batching operation done. Aaaaagh! Frustrating.

[frostyfriday]

I think it is time I tried it on my Mac

[frostyfriday]

One thing I really missed when I moved to Mac was AutoHotkey. I have not found anything quite as easy to use on the Mac.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've got a pretty optimized and relatively automated workflow setup with Photomatix and some powershell scripting to workaround the limitations, so I'm not holding my breath. 🙂 But, yeah, it would be nice to be able to stay in floating point DNG instead of EXR/HDR format.