Who says LIGHTROOM Can’t EXPOSURE BLEND Photos?!? (watch this)

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In this week’s episode, we discuss how you can exposure blend photos in Lightroom. One of the biggest limitations within Lightroom as always been it's inability to blend multiple photos together, but what if I told you this actually is possible. But, for some reason the exposure blending feature is somewhat hidden within Lightroom. It's been available for years, but the results used to be a little aggressive, but now it's better then it's ever been! In this video, I'll review the step by step process so you can begin blending photos together in Lightroom to create incredible landscape photos. I hope you enjoy this week's video and as always thanks so much for watching! - Mark D.
VIDEO CHAPTERS
🔘 What is Exposure Blending? 0:38
🔘 The Problem Exposure Blending Solves 2:11
🔘 How to Photograph an Exposure Blend 3:57
🔘 How to Exposure Blend in Lightroom 4:40
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[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

💥QUESTION: How often do you Blend Photos?

[@jgoodz]

Not as often as I should.

[@stevejohnston7118]

This is a feature that i have been reluctant to try so I THANK YOU for this video!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad to do it Steve! @@stevejohnston7118

[@rappy90]

Quite a bit especially if I'm doing drone photography near dusk of a city skyline, a good blend of the buildings and city lights without the lights being over exposed or the buildings too dark.

[@ferencczuczor7766]

I use my phone, which does it in a click and creates one multi-frame raw file ;-)

[@DaveBerthiaume]

I blend quite often. While the HDR merge is quick, it comes at the cost of the full control you get by doing it in Photoshop. I'd love to see a more robust version for Lr, along with a focus stacking feature.

[@Wistbacka]

This

[@chriscrowhurst]

The lack of these capabilities is what is keeping me in Lightroom Classic.

[@Wistbacka]

@@chriscrowhurst I don't understand why they keep making Lightroom and LIghtroom Classic. I prefer LrC; functionality is much better than LR imho. I also don't understand why they decided to rebrand the "real" lightroom as "Classic", opposed to call the newer one "Mobile" or "Lite", because that's what it is. And now when they are gonna remove the cloud-sync feature - the main upside of Lightroom Mobile - I see even less use of it. I really hope they would make a catalogue sync-possibility for LrC between multiple devices

[@RichardBO9]

I usually bracket with ISO. Set the base at ISO 200 and then take a shot at 50 and one at 800. This lets me keep the shutter speed higher to deal with wind.

[@JH-qv3xv]

Glad to have you around to dig out these not so little gems. Thanks

[@dawnj1305]

Thanks Mark! I’ve been struggling with high dynamic range in my sunrise coastal photos and noise has been a big issue. I’ll give this a go and see how I can improve. I really appreciate you sharing your expertise and techniques with Lightroom. It’s really helped me with my editing. Have a healthy and Happy New Year!

[@lschiz-photography1765]

I appreciate so much all yo Love You bring to us so often! Your kind and unassuming delivery is so refreshing. Hope this next year is a knock out for you!! Thank you!!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks so much!

[@randyschwager2515]

Good refresher! Thanks for sharing the details of this process! Thanks for taking me along!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Always happy to do it Randy!

[@gooner-n5]

Brilliant tip Mark keep em coming matey.👍🏻

[@seanmichaelroper3587]

I have found this to be a great alternative to stacking different exposures as layers in photoshop. Thanks for going over this!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Hope it was helpful Sean!

[@MA-no8tz]

Another amazing video thanks! I have used the function before but never to get the details from the sky and now I can do that.

[@johnthomasdoyle1964]

Thanks Mark, this happens me a lot and totally frustrates me as I thought it was something that I was doing wrong with my settings. I have come home many times frustrated and found I was not enjoying my days out with the camera. But now I feel reassured that it happens to professional photographers too. Thanks, I think I will be bracketing some photos from here on out. Thank you.

[@3dmeneses851]

even though I knew about this, was a nice refresher. Ive been struggling with landscape shots as of late and was exposing for the sky and the foreground was always way too dark. thanks! earned a new subscriber

[@jimrinaldi8357]

Now we need Focus Stacking.

[@boxcamera1]

Often! In the depths of Antelope Canyon, making images that included the bottom of a 120’ slot canyon that included the clear blue sky. 5-7 images were exposed and Photoshop was used for the processing . Most Excellent results! One of the many advantages of digital is that process can and do improve in time. In this case higher dynamic range in camera allowing fewer exposures necessary to capture visualization and less noise, a twofer. The bottom line is the opportunity tore-invent your most fabulous images! Yeeha!!! Have successfully processed images with up to 22 stops of dynamic range. Cool, thanks for your attitude, your tips, and most of all your Presence in Ranjith’s life.

[@tompetersphotography]

Lovely video Mark, great updated feature!

[@joeyrobertson4926]

Thanks Mark! Great info I cannot wait to try.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Joey!

[@csc-photo]

Super helpful, I’ll definitely use this feature! 👏🏻

[@JimD750]

Mark, I found out about this feature by accident. I was using panorama to create panoramas, when a message popped up letting me know that these photos can be merged as HDR. I was fairly new to Lightroom and didn't know what that meant, so I began to research it. I now use the feature on a semi- regular basis. My Nikon D5100 allows me to auto bracket 3 photos so I can merge them in Lightroom. I recently used that feature late one sunny afternoon. I was shooting up a road with a rock wall blocking the sun on one side of the road. I shot 3 bracketed photos, one in the dense shade, one in the mid level light, and one in direct sunlight. Without bracketing something would have been either too light or too dark. But the picture turned out pretty good.

[@JimD750]

I almost forgot, with bracketing I was able to have a nice blue sky as well. I'll be happy to send you a copy of the image along with the original RAW images if you want to see them.

[@madisonfreeman792]

I’ve struggled with this for years so I’m so glad to finally hear about a much easier tool. Great video!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Madison!

[@Chromatomic]

I've been using this for a few years and I'm not sure exactly when it improved but I feel like it was mostly in the auto settings and not as much on the actual exposure blend. It even does a decent job of aligning files if you takes auto-bracketed images without a tripod.

[@garymc8956]

Thanks much! Was going to get into this and you laid it out.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Perfect timing!

[@rustdesk09]

Fantastic lesson. Thanks for demystifying this stuff for me.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MatthewUseda]

Another way to do it when you have moving leaves and bushes or flowers is to take your proper exposed sky in PS along with your properly exposed scene, then mask in the sky to the properly exposed scene. You can also use RGB Levels in the sky to see what you can recover. Often times it works better than messing with all those other sliders. Also selecting sky, then curves, then bringing the Midtones down helps in a tremendous way.

[@es0terra]

Thanks for the information, Mark. Another great video. I used to use LR HDR until I started using a custom linear camera profile for my Z8, to edit in Lightroom with custom curves (gamma, end-points, mid-tones, and local/global tone mapping contrast). This method allows me to use a single file (except shooting directly into the Sun) instead of merging 2, and I get the maximum dynamic range and no noise when shooting to the right. It’s definitely more advanced, but like most things in life….more effort usually means better results.

[@gosman949]

what the? With one photo? You are still limited to the dynamic range of the sensor. Please explain in more detail.

[@rumenmetodiev2867]

I learned about this feature in Lightroom, when I get my DJI mini 2 and start searchng what Auto exposure bracketing is doing, and how can iI use it in Lighroom and Photoshop

[@gregwarson3483]

Another very useful tip; thanks Mark. I was watching another video where Nick Page was describing how to do exposure blending using Smart Objects in Photoshop. The approach you describe is much simpler but I'm wondering if there are pros/cons to either approach. Probably a much longer explanation than can be given in a response here, but maybe a topic for an upcoming weekly video. Thanks for this Mark.

[@JimEmbury]

Nice! Thanks Mark.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks for checking out the video Jim!

[@stephenschmid492]

Good to hear they have improved HDR. I will give it a try.

[@davidbai8506]

Thank you for this wonderful presentation….

[@bartjes2509]

Nice Mark, CTRL-H also works to pop the dialog or Ctrl-Shift-H for use last settings to create HDR. Lightroom can even create multiple HDR photos in parallel. Always check movement like people walking in the scene or cars moving. Hand-held is possible in most cases and use AEB feature of your camera when possible

[@seasterl]

Thanks for the video! Wonderful view you provided for us to enjoy. Question: when you walked upon this scene and you wanted to capture it, did you consider using a filter to balance it?

[@leslieballard2273]

I had no idea! Thanks!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Happy to do it!

[@liverpoolpictorial]

Thanks Mark, great video. I've been using Photoshop's Merge to HDR in ACR for years and it does a great job. My only beef is when you tick the Deghost box, it can on a few occasions create some stange shapes in the image, a bit like a huge lens flare. I don't know if you've had this issue in LR.

[@thegorn]

I almost always do two HDR merges - one with no deghosting and one with full deghosting. Then I open as layers in Photoshop and with a layer mask, just brush in where the no deghosting frame has issues. This gives me the perfect results I am after.

[@ypebanbung-michael8865]

fabulous video ❤

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thank ya!

[@boristahmasian9604]

As a rule, I underexpose by 0.7 or a full stop and I use Photoshop denoise to clean up the noise in the shadows. Denoise does an amazing job of cleaning the noise. I shoot with a Sony A7RIV which is not that great when it comes to noise in the shadows. It is noisy even at ISO 100! Mark, your GFX 100 is known to be a lot better than the Sony I have for clean shadows. I will try the bracketing technique the next time. I am curious to see the real world differences between a single image, underexposed by one stop vs. a multi-stop bracketed images.

[@redrocklead]

The Fuji's really recover the shadows well. Sometimes I opt against the HDR but definitely worth a go.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

They sure do!

[@georgegootee8213]

Great video!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@colinmelhuish1254]

Yes was helpful.

[@m.simmons7149]

Thank you! I had used this feature extensively when it was first introduced, but the results were often disappointing. It's good to learn that the overall look and quality of HDR blend has improved in recent years. P.S. I usually bracket my photos (it's an easy/lazy form of exposure insurance). But I seldom combine different exposures because it's too time consuming in Photoshop, and the old Lightroom HDR blend was often poor. I'm looking forward to revisiting some older travel photos and giving HDR blend another go.

[@esspiefotografie4786]

Hi Mark, even with filters sometimes the sky is not willing to dance and masking, layer adjustments in LRC do not help in many cases, where the sky gets washed out to bring out the details below. Dragging the exposure lever all the way to the left often leaves a very unrealistic sky in contrast to the subjects below. I knew about this HDR-merge in LRC, but I was somehow a bit nervous to put it to use. Thanks to your post here, which should erase the scepticism in me in this regard. I blend photos rarely. However, I am thinking of experimenting with the in-camera multiple exposure once. Wish you a lovely day!

[@redrocklead]

5 photos at 1/3 or 2/3's will often result in a good (Neutral) subject. You may need to try different ++/- - frames to get the right look. Shoot 5 use 3...

[@jpobrien1973]

the one limitation that I have found is that if I want to use the denoise tool, I need to do that with the individual images before doing the merge. I do use this HDR merge a lot, especially with my drone photos

[@SteveMcClanahan]

Great information. I pretty much work 100% in LR so it's good to know you can do this there instead of having to go over to PS which I'm not as familiar with.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it Steve!

[@KingCovfefe]

4:40 is the place to start if you already understand exposure bracketing.

[@markjarrett9400]

Thank you for posting. Will have to try HDR in Lightroom another go. I have not used it for yrs as I found its effect garish. In a picture like yours I have tried selecting the sky and processing it and then inverting the mask and processing the 'land'. Mostly that has worked, but the tree tops and mountain ridges can come out with a bad halo. Hopefully, the new HDR will solve that. If you have a method to solve the tree top issue on a single exposure that would make a great video.

[@redrocklead]

HDR is only as good as the shots. Hand held IBIS....HDR auto align...halo. HDR or not they are a pain, however most people view my photos of landscapes on their iphones. No one has ever mentioned it.

[@matthewsinger]

I remember when early implementations of this (and panorama photomerge) made PNG files, so you almost had to do some raw editing before merging. Now you get DNG files - a RAW hdr or a RAW panorama. All we need now is for focus stacking to become a Lightroom feature.

[@dqXIMet]

Thanks for the video! If we compare HDR from Lightroom vs HDR from Photoshop, which one will be better after editing? I saw some articles, and their give some advantages/disadvantages about this topic

[@joewigginsfortynine]

I have been using this feature in lightroom for years now. I belong to a photo club and I use it when we shoot inside of churches. I set my camera to bracketing and shoot 2 stops lighter and 2 stops darker and one shot set the way the light meter says. So three shots altogether. I put all three into lightroom and use the hdr setting and it comes out almost perfect , just some minor adjustments.

[@curtishall8208]

Great video and I see the value for landscapes. Will it also work on Milky Way shots -- where you often want a dark sky and more exposed foreground?

[@johnpollock6996]

How often do I blend photos - focus stack, very frequently (macro fan), but exposure blend, very rarely. Do you prefer to take the shots individually or use your cameras' HDR option in a menu? Good stuff Mark. Thanks for all your efforts.

[@stephenschmid492]

Mark, in addition to the HDR merge function in Lightroom, there is also the "HDR" button in the Develop panel, which is a relatively new addition (next to the "Auto" and "B&W" buttons). I don't understand how that's supposed to work. Which photos is it appropriate for? And do you need a special HDR monitor to use it? I would like to suggest that you make a video on the topic. Thanks so much! And Happy New Year!

[@redrocklead]

It's to prepare images for HDR displays. You'll notice the histogram extends. I don't have an hdr monitor so it's grayed out for me.

[@stephenschmid492]

@@redrocklead Wow, well that leads to a bunch of questions for me. Too many to succinctly put into a comment here, I think. Hopefully Mark will do a video. Someone out there has probably already done one.

[@chantallabelle8571]

I started using blending few months ago in Capture One. It makes a huge difference on the final image! I have a question. Why have you switch from using Capture One to Lightroom? Is it because it is easier to use Lightroom with Photoshop? Thank you! Have a pleasant day.

[@AD.Photographer]

Hi Mark! Is this available in the Mobile version? Thanks again for all your great tips and advices

[@suxxesphoto6419]

If I focus say in the background for the highlights and in the foreground for the shadows does a HDR merge also then implicitly focus stack?

[@jamesollis]

Once you merged and had your HDR results. Would you rather just brighten/darken the exposures, and do the little side bar adjustments as you did here, or would you suggest using masks to pinpoint areas you thought needed adjusting?

[@ViewportPlaythrough]

those kind of question really depends on 1) the image itself 2) your intent on how you would use the image 3) your personal style. the better way to do it is to visualize what you want to do with the image first, the result that you want from it. then do the process to have that result. that goes to merging itself as well. if you dont really know why you are merging, it would just make your image muddy and would just end up as an overly complicated thing when you just needed a single image. thats what gave hdr a bad reputation in the past, when everyone was overdoing it. its not that lr hidden it, its just that hdr itself has a bad rep.

[@johnnybachman2095]

So when the iPad M1 Pro came out I got it and has been my main photo editing source. Do you know if Lightroom mobile has an exposure bracketing for it? Or any app that can do it for iPad? Great video though and super helpful!

[@lisadueck]

I use this feature quite a bit, and also the panorama option too. what I’d like to know more about is the masking you used to get the image on instagram, and whether that burn/dodge was done in Lr? great photo!

[@edwarddebruyn8717]

Yes indeed very useful for pano's. Use it all the time. Just select all the pictures for the pano with different exposures and LR does it for you. Even if you forget to select HDR-pano it will tell you to do it.

[@mikebartow9415]

Thanks. I saw the bracket feature in Lightroom, haven’t used it yet. I do have a question for you. Does Lightroom handle a 3-5 shot bracketed photos well? What are your thoughts?

[@jerrykita8767]

Mark, great video. Is the exposure blending available in Adobe Camera Raw?

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Jerry! No, I don't believe so

[@throttleblip6544]

Excellent video. One question: to remove the noise, do you remove the noise before the merge to both images or do you denoise the merged file.

[@gosman949]

It use to take 3 to 5 images to do a good HDR. Now with the new sensors, yes indeed it can be done with two images.

[@jean-claudelaurin4180]

Do you think that the feature "Merge to hdr pro" in Photoshop does a better job? I remember that some people were very excited with the fact that HDR Pro produced 32 bits files that supposedly allowed more flexibility in the editing process. That could be a good idea for a future video.

[@geopapa80]

Now it's time for focus bracketing LR! I hate having to go to Photoshop for that...

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

That would be nice

[@rpinspiredphotography4641]

🤔🤔🤔 Who'd a thunk it!! LOL! What about using bracketing instead of picking your settings independently? I haven't played with bracketing. I am guessing that the HDR function also works with focus stacking?

[@hugh_martin]

Great video - again. I use LR’s HDR feature in similar situations, but here’s what I don’t get. The two images you used were 3 stops apart (1/50 and 1/6 shutter speed). I don’t know what camera you used, but I’m willing to bet it’s advertised to have more than 10 stops of dynamic range. Yet as you have just eloquently shown, your camera cannot successfully expose an image with just 3 stops of dynamic range. What’s going on here?

[@YankeeTankerOutdoors]

Does it matter if you make adjustments on the individual pics before HDR merge?

[@jrrockett]

Could of been Editing the Extra dynamic range by clicking on the HDR button below the histogram as well for even more options.

[@DavidHarrisGRI]

It looked to me like it dulled the color and highlights of the foreground. The greens were vibrant in the original bright image, but not so much in the HDR. I think it is better to open as layers in Photoshop and only retouch the areas that need it.

[@j.j.mahanyjr776]

What about masking and noise reduction, both before and after merging these images?

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

I usually do it afterwards

[@crisrezzo7474]

Hi Mark. Did you take two or three separate photos or let the camera do the work? (braketing). GND filters don't do the same job.?

[@lenzflyfishing]

When I followed the steps and went into develop, the adjustments were already made. I don't understand because I followed your exact steps. The HDR looks great, but the adjustments have already been made. Has this happened to anyone else? Thank you!

[@tobiasyoder]

Photo merge HDR could be passible sometimes, but often leads to weird artifacting as the image inconsistently chooses which image to source from between adjacent areas. The bigger the bracket the worse it does. If there is any movement in the frame whatsoever it is also a no go.

[@Jagz9]

hello everyone here: i have a question. can i do this in Lightroom? and what is the advantage of lightroom c? thanks

[@wismokey]

LR HDR still doesn't get the clean images I get with exposure blending and luminosity masks. It may be quick but the end result isn't good enough.

[@eltiburon1983]

how its done at 4:50 - thanks :)

[@christopherberry8519]

I'm wondering - if you expose your shadows to the right, clipping the clouds even more deliberately, wouldn't you get a better result?

[@collharti]

It would be best if you had said to move photos from develop to the library

[@MarinosPl]

Does anyone know if this is possible in Lightroom Mobile as well?

[@Jagz9]

i just a fisherman hobby coverted to photograpy:)

[@JDB64]

Has any one tried this with focus stacking ?

[@G405713]

I’ve done a little focus stacking, but it usually turns out pretty bad since once I think about a composition I would like to stack, I completely forget my tripod and try my hardest to keep my various refocused images in the same composition. Lightroom and Photoshop try to auto align but, it just usually cuts off parts of the image I want to keep and it all goes to hell. 😅

[@keiththompson2289]

I've been using this since it came out. It's not really hidden.

[@bingbong4848]

If anyone cares, you can also do this in Lightroom CC. Yes, I use Lightroom CC...

[@MRQirex]

HDR merge on lightroom is pretty useless bro. If/when they add some masking features to it then we may get to something useful, meanwhile unless your raw files have insane dynamic range to arrange the mess that's a bad recommendation.

[@dr_moscow]

Another way to bring back a blown-out sky is to use a PL filter

[@JohnMacLeanPhotography]

Rarely. And only at right angles to the sun.

[@snap-n-shoot]

Lightroom was created for photographers who did not want all the bells and whistles of Photoshop as they wanted to focus solely on photo editing. Now the boundary is greying as photographers now want Lightroom to have the ability of Photoshop…..

[@iliasxa360]

So... the usual HDR just using 2 images instead of 3 or 5...