LR6: HDR or panorama merge first?

[dreed]

In relatively quiet scenes it is possible to capture both shots for HDR *and* pan for a panorama shot too.

When doing so, is the preferred method to HDR first and then pano or to pano first and then HDR? Or do both generate the same (or close enough to it) output?

[SanderKikkert]

I say HDR first, supposing that when you try to merge to pano first the pano-merge of the brightest exposures will be difficult if not impossible for LR as there are obviously going to be areas with blown highlights and hence no detail/info for the aligning "thingy" to work its magic....i'd write "algorithm" but I really have no clue how these things work from a technical point of view..

So HDR first and then merge the tiffs to a pano.

Best Regards, Sander

[mac_paolo]

Best practice: HDR first then stitch them in a single Pano.

[Paul2660]

Since LR, came out with the HDR and pano features, I really have not looked anywhere else for solutions.

I would also recommend the creation of the HDR dng first, then taking all the dngs and creating the pano.  A few things I have found out.

The LR pano tool seems to work better with dng or raw output, not imported tif files.  Tif files will be treated the same way as Adobe CC photoshop's panomerge seems to handle them.

The HDR output into dng can be a bit plain, but resist the urge to work on the files until you merge into the pano.  Once merged, into yet another dng, you can now work on the file with the LR toolset just like it's a raw

The HDR output into dng can fool you as the file will outwardly appear flat, but there is still a ton of life left in the shot. 

The pano merge does a better job on exposure blending when working on raw or dng files, where as imported tif files it seems to have some limitations.

Personally, I have found the HDR tool by far the best I have used.  I am not looking for a 3D/grunge look that's easy enough to get.  The blending is very good and the end results is a very malleable raw/dng file.  I hope to see Adobe tweak this tool a bit more in the future as there is some room for improvement.  Working on older files like 1ds or 1ds MKII files, all taken from 2003 to 2007 are very impressive. Year of using a zork adapter, 3 shift,  and 3 brackets per shot now really pays off, as the end results are by far the best I have seen from these Canon images.

Paul C

[luxborealis]

In relatively quiet scenes it is possible to capture both shots for HDR *and* pan for a panorama shot too.

When doing so, is the preferred method to HDR first and then pano or to pano first and then HDR? Or do both generate the same (or close enough to it) output?

Does anyone out there remember Fred Picker of Zone Vi fame? I remember his newsletters well; when someone wrote in with a question like this, he used a rubber stamp with red ink to say: TRY IT!

I know these are discussion forums where we hope to gain from someone else's experience, but there's also something to be said for trying it yourself. It's not that complicated or time consuming to take a couple of captures and try it one way first and the other way next. Then you can report to us what worked best for you and what you learned from the experience. My money is on "there's no discernible difference on a print", but then again, I haven't tried it (yet).

[Jglaser757]

I have tried it both ways and pano's for me look much better when I use HDR first. Trying to do an an HDR of three pano's will also slow my computer down considerably more .