2 questions on LR HDR and Pano merge

[Paul2660]

After using both the Pano and HDR features in LR CC, I have come up with a couple of questions that have vexed me a bit.

1.  With the HDR merge, the preview image to me is too small to really tell if the de-ghosting is needed or not.  is there a way to zoom to 100% in the preview?  If not I would hope that this can be fixed in the future.  A 100% view is also helpful on alignment checks.

2.  On the Pano merge, I have noticed that the merge strips any local adjustments i.e. brush, or ND etc when it combines the images and it puts them back as basic raw files.  Is there a way to tell LR to keep the adjustments during the merge?  This is a also a pain for older images I have in the catalog that are panos.  If they have any local adjustments on them, you have to export the images, then re-import them to merge to a pano, or make virtual copies, and then reset the develop steps and then merge.  
Again I understand the advantage of merging non adjusted raw files to a pano (dng) and then working on it in LR.  This is what I do for all new work, but I have thousands of images already in the catalog with adjustments on them that are part of panos, that prior to LR CC I would have exported and then merged in another application.  

Just curious if there is a way to work with the images with adjustments already applied to them.  I have found that export-re-import is no advantage with LR as LR does not merge tifs as well as it does a raw file to dng. 

Thanks
Paul

[Schewe]

1.  With the HDR merge, the preview image to me is too small to really tell if the de-ghosting is needed or not.  is there a way to zoom to 100% in the preview?  If not I would hope that this can be fixed in the future.  A 100% view is also helpful on alignment checks.

Nope...not at this time. There's a hard limit, 1024 pixels for regular displays and 2048 pixels (I think) for Retina type displays. Perhaps that might change in the future.

2.  On the Pano merge, I have noticed that the merge strips any local adjustments i.e. brush, or ND etc when it combines the images and it puts them back as basic raw files.  Is there a way to tell LR to keep the adjustments during the merge?

Nope, however some local adjustments will be available soon. It seems that stripping some local adjustments like spot healing was an oversight by the engineers. As for other local adjustments, keeping them might be problematic so it's unclear how many local adjustments the engineers can include.

[Paul2660]

Thanks Jeff,

Glad to see they are looking changes for future release.  Excellent tools.

Paul

[rdonson]

1.  With the HDR merge, the preview image to me is too small to really tell if the de-ghosting is needed or not.  is there a way to zoom to 100% in the preview?  If not I would hope that this can be fixed in the future.  A 100% view is also helpful on alignment checks.

Thanks
Paul

I did a lot of testing of my images and what I like to create.  Lr HDR merge didn't compare favorably with Photomatix.  Photomatix de-ghosting was better and a LOT more flexible and with an option to selectively de-ghost an area.  Typically I create natural looking images from HDR. 

I hope that Adobe keeps working on HDR in Lr as it is certainly handy.   

[Paul2660]

I have never been able get a natural image with Photomatrix, and with older shots I feel it pulls too much noise into the files.  1ds 1ds MKII, 5d MKII.  However I realize that is just my knowledge of the program.  I have tried it many times over the years just never got that comfortable with it and when Nik came out, I moved to it.  Nik has always had what I can spectral highlight issues, where fine tree limbs etc will take on a strange look and alias with a sparkling, that can ruin a shot.

LR creates a very even HDR file, and at first it will look flat, very flat.   That surprised me at first, but once you start back in with local adjustments and the like you can pull the DMAX right back in. 

The advantages I am seeing are noiseless conversions, very very good alignment and so so de-ghosting.  LR on the highest level of de-ghosting pulls way too much noise back to the file.  Only on the last level.  It de-ghosted fine, but the noise is excessive.


I am also hoping that Adobe continues to work on this tool and tweaks it a bit.

Paul

[rdonson]

With Photomatix v 5 they introduced the "Exposure Fusion" method with a number of options within that.  I've been able to use that to produce the natural images I've been looking for.  Mostly I've done landscape and urban skylines.

[Paul2660]

With Photomatix v 5 they introduced the "Exposure Fusion" method with a number of options within that.  I've been able to use that to produce the natural images I've been looking for.  Mostly I've done landscape and urban skylines.

Thanks, I am not running current with Photomatrix and will pick that version and try it. 

Paul

[Misirlou]

With Photomatix v 5 they introduced the "Exposure Fusion" method with a number of options within that.  I've been able to use that to produce the natural images I've been looking for.  Mostly I've done landscape and urban skylines.

I started with Photomatx 1.0 (actually, maybe even an alpha version), then moved through all the other big players in an attempt to get more natural looking results. But I seem to get my best results with Exposure Fusion in Photomatx these days. Go figure.