HDR merge darker in Lightroom CC vs Classic

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
May 2, 2021
1 reply
2218 views

I am newer to Lightroom and have a problem. I'm doing real estate photography for my office and I am using our brand new Canon camera and taking the photos with bracketing (5 at 2 stops apart). When I bring them into Lightroom, select them and choose HDR merge the final result is very dark. It seems to be giving "priority" to the darker pictures. I gave the same photos to a photograher friend who has Classic and the merged picture is much lighter, and more usable. Any ideas?

Problem or error

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JohanElzenga

Community Expert

I doubt there is any real difference in the file itself. Did you use 'Auto Enhance' in the merge dialog? The difference may simply be the way Lightroom has (or has not) set the initial develop settings. As these are non-destructive, you can change them at any time so it's just a matter of changing the sliders to something you like better.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

J

Jaime5E6DAuthor

Participant

I just select the 5 images and go to Photo, Photo Merge then HDR Merge and then select Merge Image. I don't see the "Auto Enhance". I have sat down with someone who is very well versed in Lightroom and was perplexed why my HDR images were turning out so dark. By time I use the sliders to up the Exposure etc. I end up blowing out the windows and then have to go in separately with the brush tool and turn the Exposure down for them so the outside will be visible. As I stated above, I sent the same 5 images to my photographer friend and he used his Lightroom Classic, used the same method and his photos merged significantly lighter and much more usable. I'm just trying to make my editing process a bit more stream lined. Thanks for the help!

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

I just select the 5 images and go to Photo, Photo Merge then HDR Merge and then select Merge Image. I don't see the "Auto Enhance".

It's called "Auto Settings" (top right of the HDR Preview window in Lightroom). Make sure that both of you are using the same settings. If you then still get the same result, do a comparison of the develop slider settings to see how the two merged images compare. There might be minor differences, but the overall merged image should look very similar.

Are you reviewing the two output files on the same monitor?

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