How to Stack Bracketed and HDR Exposures

Confused about the difference between HDR and bracketed exposures?
Knowing The Differences Between HDR and Bracketing will get you started.

Now that we have a firm grasp on when to use HDR and bracketed exposures, let’s jump to the third step: how to stack each exposure in a post-processing program.

I will discuss two powerful and popular stacking platforms: Adobe Lightroom and Aurora HDR. Adobe Lightroom Photoshop also has the same capabilities but there’s so much to say I’ll leave it to its own blog someday.

I first want to address something: if you want to stack in Adobe and edit elsewhere, beware stacking in Adobe as it creates a DNG file. DNG is an Adobe file type that will alter your colors if used in another program. If you plan on using only Adobe software to edit, don’t worry about that.

Stacking with Lightroom

Find your exposures (however many depends on your settings) and select all of them. Do not select the stacked JPG.Right-click on any of the selected files and scroll to PHOTO MERGE > HDR.