Lightroom Photo Merge > HDR not working

[Sara W]

Lightroom Photo Merge > HDR is not working, or rarely and randomly. I will select RAW 4-5 images to export to HDR and it does nothing. So then I try exporting to PhotoMatix Pro via Lightroom (which does work, always). Sometimes after doing that, Photo Merge > HDR will then export (but not always.)

I use Photomatrix and Lightroom both to HDR merge, depending on the image, so they are both usually active.

I just updated to Mac OS Catalina (10.15.2). I mention that, as I did not have this issue before, so wondering if it's related.  There do not seem to be other changed variables. I am using Lightroom Classic 9.1 Release, Camera Raw 12.1. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[GoldingD]

Have you considered resetting your preference file?

[cornerofyoureye]

I am having similar issues. I am on WIn 10, latest update to OS and video drivers, just pushed latest update to Lightroom Classic. For the last couple of months any HDR creation gets to the preview, I initiate the processes and it appears to be running (showing briefly 2 processes running) and creates an image that looks like static. I've been using the option to Edit In > Merge to HDR in Photoshop as a workaround,  I'm not happy with the HDR process this way, the TIF doesn't look as good, it's quite time consuming, and breaks the develop processing flow. I am unaware how long this has been an issue as I haven't processed HDR in about a year. 

I have an i9 processor, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, GeForce GTX 1070 Ti. Image files on an 8TB NAS, gigabit Ethernet. I've tried each of the 3 settings for Use Graphics Processor and the results are the same. I'm at a loss why this doesn't work.

Any suggestions besides "reboot my machine", I mean "reset my preference file"?

[Rob_Cullen]

You can find some helpful advice here- (maybe an answer)

Lightroom 6/CC2015 – Photo Merge Tidbits (Part 1) | Rikk Flohr's Fleeting Glimpse Images

[cornerofyoureye]

That's great advice for people who want to know how to do it, but I used to be able to create HDR, now I can't. It's lost functionality. Lightroom finishes the process, with the result being a file which appears to have been encoded incorrectly. I'd have uploaded it but it's 100MB. It looks like squares of horizontal gradient next to squares of vertical gradient in an alternating pattern evenly distributed checkerboard across the image. 

Adding insult to injury, the export to Photoshop doesn't use the Lightroom develop settings, which is why the resulting TIF look bad. So the workaround is really to export each developed image for the HDR base to DNG, then group those to export to Photoshop to create the HDR.

Googling the problem, it appears to be an issue starting in 2017, where the process stalled for people. So Adobe fixes have gotten past there, but it appears there may be something in some process for certain hardware that isn't finalizing/encoding the image correctly. 

I'm hoping someone has heard something, or that Adobe monitors these as pre-trouble ticket, so they can find the end of this bug.

[Sara W]

I think it's related to Photomatrix Pro. Do you use it? I got my Lightroom to work for awhile by resetting prefs, but it's doing it again. If I don't use Photomatrix Lightroom is OK merging itself. But once I use Photomatrix, it messes up LR

[cornerofyoureye]

I do not use Photomatrix. I do have other image processing software, none that are LR plugins (or install as LR plugins). I also have RAWTherapy, PhotoLemur, GIMP, StarStaX, Sequator, the Cyberlink video editing suite, Blender, and several sketch/drawing apps as well. Yea, I'm into graphic image stuff.

I did some experiments, and LR doesn't save RAW format anymore. Export will still make a copy of the original image to a new location, but it won't save a DNG w/o scrambling it. Export to TIF and JPG still works. So something's messing with its RAW encoder for file creation. Just in case it was the camera (I use several) I attempted to recreate an HDR successfully created in the past. Failed there, too.

DNG is an Adobe format, so I'm not sure what other software could be messing with this file creation routine.

[cornerofyoureye]

I was mistaken about other exports working. When I export toTIF the TIF is offset horizontally. Some images don't offset, but some do, like it's attempting to find the edge of the photo do if there's something natural that looks like it may be the edge it will offset the image to that edge.

[NicholasKroeker]

I think a recent update broke something here. I recently updated to 9.2 a few days ago (specifically hoping to get updates regarding HDR support if there were any, I had a lot of HDR to process) and images I had successfully merged on the previous version I can no longer replicate on the new version. 90+% fail with "Unable to Merge". I can't roll back to an earlier version, because updating to this one irreversibly changes the catalogue format and only works on the newer versions. Not sure why I'm paying monthly money for Adobe to break one of the main reasons I'm using Lightroom, and I have no option to roll back the update to a working version!

[kennethy746988]

For sure something is wrong with version 10.1.  I just rolled it back to version 10.0 and now the HDR batch merging is working fine.

I really wish there was an alternative solution to Adobe products...

[Tony_See]

Sara

Can you provide a little more detail regarding the "and it does nothing" that apparently occurs thanks?

Any possibility to go back from Catalina (maybe via Time Machine) . . . 

[Sara W]

Normally when you choose Photo Merge > HDR a box comes up indicating it is processing the images. This does not happen. When I select the images and choose Photo Merge > HDR, absolutely nothing occurs. It just sits there as if I did not choose the HDR option. So then I go to PhotoMatix Pro (via Lightroom) instead. Sometimes after doing this, it will then work, for some weird reason.  I have never had this issue before now.

I do not want to revert back to Catalina. I actually finally did it because I was so damn tired of the box insisting I update every day. Mistake. Should have held out longer as I find everything to be slower now, a bit wonky. I think the key is that Catalina will not work with anything that is 32-bit based.  So if there are functions within LR that are still this way, that may be the issue (??)

[GoldingD]

On freshly updated MACOS Catalina, formerly Mojave.

Ran one Photo Merge-HDR test. No problem

Ran one Photo Merge-PANO test, No problem

Ran one LRC to PS and back, no problem

Note:

Decided to update to Catalina last night, accept any disasters, and join fellow members working LRC  on Catalina. Mind you, I made sure not a single non Apple 32bit anything was installed (just 2 Apple apps that got removed during update). This process included absolutly uninstalling every Adobe app as several old leftover bits of 32bit code was lingering, I mean everything, then installing Adobe software afresh, inspecting for any 32bit, then pulling the trigger on Catalina

[Sara W]

Hi David,

Thanks so much for testing!  I wish I knew why it's not working correctly. I tried to search via System Report to see if I had any 32-bit apps but could not determine if I did or not. Wonder if Photomatic pro might be the culprit?  Just found there is an update for that. Will see if that makes any difference (?)

[GoldingD]

Did you try a preferences file reset?

Please remeber that doing so may change preferences to defaults. It will probably cause LRC to forget the previously opened catalog, so pay attention to where your catalog is.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html 

https://lightroomers.com/replacing-the-lightroom-preference-file/745/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bARt-hoCc2Q 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/recover-catalog-images-resetting-lightroom.html 

[Tony_See]

Sara I'm wondering if that PhotoMatix update (or removal) may have helped you?

Can you post back as you progress pls . . .

[Sara W]

Hi Tony, it helped for awhile (updating Photomatric pro). I also reser my prefs and thought it was working again, but not so.

[Sara W]

UPDATE!  I just updated to Lightroom Classic 9.2.1. HDR definetly not working.  So, as a test, I uninstalled and reinstalled 9.1.  Thank goodness 9.1 now works, for whatever reason.  Logged onto here to post about it, and found my old post here.  Makes no sense, but Lightroom Classic 9.2.1 definetly buggy in regards to HDR merging.  😞

[HNMPhoto]

I'm having this issue as well, SUPER FRUSTRATING.

[GoldingD]

Can you upload a sample set to Drop  Box, for fellow members to experiment with?

[Pat_BentImageLab]

Has anyone come across a solution for this? I installed Lightroom for the first time for this very purpose and am finding that it is unable to merge photos into HDRI (Spherical or otherwise). "Unable to Merge the Selected Photos Please select a different projection or cancel and review the selection"

Photoshop does this fine, I wonder what the issue is?

[GoldingD]

For Photo Merge, be it HDR ot PANO, make sure you have the 1:1 previews created.

and, yes, spherical, etc is PANO not HDR.

[Pat_BentImageLab]

Interesting, so LRC does either .HDR or Pano but not both? 

I was about to post on the LR thread, then came to find that it will not export as .HDRI to other applications, only .DNG ... so I think I am done trying to use either LR or LRC to make these 360 HDRI's

Thanks for the feedback

[KR Seals]

Pat, I think you have a separate issue. HDR in Lightroom Classic does not have "spherical or otherwise" function. You are probably in the merge panorama function. Please post your issue as a new, separate post.

[Pat_BentImageLab]

I never knew there were two versions! Thanks for the redirect.

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