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How do I create an HDR shot that avoids any highlight clipping?

Photography Asked on November 29, 2020

I’ve taken three bracketed shots with a lot of contrast between the sky and the mountain valley below. Now I’m trying to create an HDR image which includes all the details from the clouds above without highlight clipping and likewise all the details from the forest below.

enter image description here

However currently the best I can do in Lightroom is this:

enter image description here

As you can tell, there is some highlight clipping on the left side of the image where the sun is, even though the least exposed shot does have the non-clipped version of the same clouds. How do I create an HDR that avoids clipping any highlights, even in scenes with extreme amounts of contrast?

If you’d like to download the RAW images above, they’re available here: 1, 2, 3.

One Answer

I don't know Lightroom's HDR Merge, but this is the kind of task I would always give to a specialist app, something like Aurora HDR or even the old freeware version of Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2.

These are 'one button presets' from each…

Aurora

enter image description here

HDR Efex

enter image description here

You could spend an hour fine-tuning either of these, but basically each of the above was just an "ooh, that brings the sky out" one button preset.
Images intentionally small, as neither of them are presented as "this is perfect" in any way, just quick examples, two minutes to generate each.

Answered by Tetsujin on November 29, 2020

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