Today’s Question: If I understand correctly, I could assemble an HDR [high dynamic range] image in Photoshop or in Camera Raw. Do you recommend one over the other, or are they the same?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can assemble HDR images using either Camera Raw or a feature within Photoshop. I highly recommend Camera Raw because based on my experience, it consistently produces better quality results.
More Detail: Photoshop has long offered the HDR Pro feature for combining multiple exposures into an HDR image. However, I consistently find that Camera Raw provides superior results with a more streamlined workflow, and so highly recommend Camera Raw over HDR Pro for assembling HDR images.
If you want to test HDR Pro for yourself, you can select the multiple bracketed exposures you want to merge into an HDR image within Adobe Bridge. Then go to the menu and choose Tools > Photoshop > Merge to HDR Pro. The selected images will be opened into a layered image in Photoshop, and the HDR Pro dialog will appear. You can apply the tone-mapping directly with HDR Pro by selecting “16 Bit” from the Mode popup. However, in general I recommend choosing “32 Bit” and then keeping the “Complete Toning in Adobe Camera Raw” checkbox turned on. This enables you to complete the tone-mapping for the HDR image using Camera Raw. Of course, you can also simply perform all processing in Camera Raw, which I think makes more sense and, in my experience, produces better results.
To create an HDR image in Camera Raw you can first select all the exposures for the HDR image in Adobe Bridge. Then double-click on any of the selected raw captures to open them in Camera Raw. On the filmstrip in Camera Raw select all the images, then either right-click on one of the images or click the “more” button (the ellipsis icon) at the top-right of one of the thumbnails. From the popup menu choose “Merge to HDR”.
This will bring up the HDR Merge Preview dialog, where you can configure the settings for creating the initial HDR image. Click the Merge button, and the HDR image will be created and opened in Camera Raw. You can then use all the available adjustments to fine-tune the result. You can then click the Open button at the bottom of the Camera Raw dialog to open the HDR image in Photoshop, save the image, and apply any additional adjustments you’d like.
