In this tutorial we’ll show you how easy it is to create HDR images using Lightroom and Photoshop.

In the visible world the dynamic range which is the ratio between the dark and bright regions far exceeds the range of human vision and of images that can be displayed on a monitor or printed. HDR images - High Dynamic Range images - opens up a world of possibilities because they can represent the dynamic range of the visible world.

Photoshop’s merge to HDR Pro command combines multiple photographs, captured at different exposures, into an HDR image. The merged images are contained in a 32 bit file. This bit depth is necessary to contain all of the image information. Because the dynamic range of HDR images far exceeds what can be displayed on a standard monitor you need to adjust the toning to determine how the image is displayed on your monitor.

We will be using the controls in Lightroom to do the toning to create a photo realistic looking image. Here are 3 images captured at different exposures. When you photograph your images it’s recommended you secure your camera on a tripod and set the controls to manual. You don’t want the focus or depth of field to shift when capturing the images. Keep the aperture constant and change only the shutter speed. Some cameras have an automatic bracketing feature. If you use such a feature make sure your camera is set to aperture priority, so the camera only varies the shutter speed. In Lightroom select the images you want to use. As an option you can switch to the Develop module and under Lens Corrections select Enable Profile Corrections and Remove Chromatic Aberration.

Returning to the Library module we right click the selected photos and choose Edit In, Merge To HDR Pro In Photoshop. In the Merge To HDR Pro dialog box we see a preview and the thumbnails of the images you are merging. In the upper right area of the dialog box we assure to choose 32 Bit from the Mode menu. And since we are going to do the toning in Lightroom make sure the Complete Toning in Adobe Camera Raw option is deselected. If there were moving objects in the images you photograph ghosting can occur when merging them. So you want to select the Remove ghosts option. After selecting this option you’ll notice that one of the thumbnails has been highlighted. This is the image that Photoshop is using as a source for the alignment. If you don’t like the alignment, you can always select a different source by clicking a thumbnail. I think the alignment is fine, now I click OK. Photoshop generates the 32 bit HDR image. Save the file, then close Photoshop. Returning to Lightroom you’ll notice that the 32 bit HDR image has been added to the library. Now you can use the controls in the Development module to make adjustments. First we’ll adjust the exposure. Then lighten the shadows to bring out the details of the rocks. And let’s bring down the highlights a bit to restore some of the details in the clouds. Now I’ll increase the clarity to heighten the mid tone contrast and make the sky more dramatic. Let’s make the colors more saturated by increasing the vibrancy. That looks pretty good. I’d like to bring out the sunset a bit more, so I’ll use the orange slider in the HSL controls. When merging multiple photos to a 32 bit HDR image the image can sometimes get noisy. You can reduce the noise and add sharpening, using the controls in the Detail tab of the Develop module. Keep in mind you can even convert the image to a grey scale by clicking Black and White. For this tutorial we’ll stay with the color image. And there you have it: Creating a photo realistic HDR image by using the controls in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.