Today’s Question: Does the “Merge to HDR” feature in Lightroom Classic provide the same results as Camera Raw?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, the built-in HDR merge feature in Lightroom Classic is equivalent to the same feature in Camera Raw. I therefore recommend using this feature rather than sending bracketed exposures to Photoshop for merging to an HDR image.
More Detail: Photoshop includes the HDR Pro feature for merging bracketed exposures into a high dynamic range (HDR) image. However, in my view this feature is inferior to the Photo Merge feature available in Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw. I therefore recommend using Photo Merge to create HDR images rather than HDR Pro.
For Lightroom Classic users that means assembling HDR images by selecting the bracketed exposures and choosing Photo > Photo Merge > HDR from the menu. That also means avoiding the Photo > Edit In > Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop command from the menu.
Today’s question was a follow-up to a question about using Camera Raw versus Photoshop for creating HDR images. So, the question is to some extent about whether Camera Raw and the Develop module in Lightroom Classic are equivalent. The answer is that the two are indeed equivalent in terms of processing quality and for the most part in terms of feature parity.
There are times when Adobe releases features in Camera Raw before they are available in Lightroom. However, in general when that happens, we don’t have to wait too long before the feature is available in Lightroom as well.
