Merge to ... Fails with .NEF files

[jwlimages]

I have run into a weird failure in LR CC 2015 (LR6). A client has sent me .nef files for various uses. Some are intended as panoramas, some for HDR composites. But when I try to have LR perform either of these functions internally (to get .dng's), nothing happens. Using the menu command: Photo Merge > Panorama (or "HDR" in that case) results in... nothing, while trying the command key equivalent (are they still called that these days?) of, e.g., Shift-H just produces an error sound (ding!).

Is there some issue with .nef's that I haven't heard about? I do this all the time with Canon .cr2's and Pentax .dng's from my 645z. It's a great feature to merge these files & have a .dng to work with. I'm puzzled why LR just won't deal with these .nef's. Maybe they weren't the greatest quality, but Edit>Merge to Panorama/HDR in Photoshop seems to work fine on them...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

John

JWL Images
Emeryville, CA


P.S. oh yeah, I'm on a Mac Pro, OS X 10.10.5, plenty of RAM & SSD boot disk w/lots of scratch space available, GPU disabled.

[Paul2660]

When you select HDR or Pano do you get the next screen where the grey box is displayed?  On this screen you can then select merge or cancel. Many times with .nef D810 files when I hit merge nothing happens. You get the progress bar but you never see the green progress moving. When this happens I cancel then reload the same files hit merge and it always runs.

Since it always works the second time, I am assuming it is a bug if some sort.

Paul

[jwlimages]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

When you select HDR or Pano do you get the next screen where the grey box is displayed?

No, I don't get even that far. As I said, "Nothing" happens. Trying to invoke the command a second or third time makes no difference, either.

John

[mcbroomf]

I just checked with a set of old D800 files and had no problems.  Possibly his files are slightly corrupted?  Could you get him to send them again?  And since the NEF HDR failed did you recheck other files to confirm it's not a recent LR corruption?

[jwlimages]

Well, now 2 days later I try again, and at least the HDR merge has returned for these .NEF's. No idea why it works now - have changed nothing. PhotoMerge > Panorama still does nothing, but I suspect this *might be related to the fact that the photographer shot horizontals instead of verticals for stitching into a horizontal pano (or maybe it's because the lens was a 24mm f/3.5 - is that a Nikkor perspective control lens?).

Anyway, I have never seen this error with my Canon or Pentax files, so maybe this will just remain a mystery.

Thanks for the replies.

John

[Paul2660]

Well, now 2 days later I try again, and at least the HDR merge has returned for these .NEF's. No idea why it works now - have changed nothing. PhotoMerge > Panorama still does nothing, but I suspect this *might be related to the fact that the photographer shot horizontals instead of verticals for stitching into a horizontal pano (or maybe it's because the lens was a 24mm f/3.5 - is that a Nikkor perspective control lens?).

Anyway, I have never seen this error with my Canon or Pentax files, so maybe this will just remain a mystery.

Thanks for the replies.

John

Is there any chance that one of the images you are trying to merge to a pano is a "virtual copy".  I just tried to merge some virtual copies and got the same error you are reporting, the feature will not even launch.  But works fine on the 1st non virtual copy.  Just a thought.

Paul

[jwlimages]

Paul2660 wrote:

Is there any chance that one of the images you are trying to merge to a pano is a "virtual copy".

-- Bingo! That's exactly the issue - at least when I went back just now & selected the originals, Merge > Pano fires up as it should.

Maybe that was the issue with Merge > HDR as well, although I don't think so. I thought I selected the same images (which were VCs) the last time I tried (successfully) on those.

It's odd, because I use VCs all the time, especially in this "jobs" catalog, where I'm editing other people's raw captures all the time, and I had never seen this issue before.

Anyway, thanks for your help solving this one.

John