The Skylum team recently announced the long-awaited successor for Aurora HDR: The HDR Merge extension for Luminar Neo. High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is one of my favorite techniques. It blends multiple exposures into a single image with amazing depth and details throughout the tonal spectrum.
Click here to learn more about capturing photos for HDR photography.
Luminar Neo’s new extension makes it incredibly easy to merge multiple images into an HDR. Simply select up to 10 bracketed photos in the Catalog grid view, drag them to the HDR Merge extension in the right panel, and click Merge.
Check out the short video below for instructions on installing the Luminar Neo extension and creating HDR photos.
HDR Merge will be free for Luminar Neo subscribers and those who previously purchased Aurora HDR (2019 or newer). If you purchased a lifetime license of Luminar Neo, the extension will be $49.99.
Want to learn more? Check out our Complete Photofocus Guide to Luminar Neo.
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how does it compare to photomatix pro?
Hi tgraham – When it comes to HDR software, my bottom line is which one produces the best results? Photomatix Pro is a good app and I’ve had it for many years. It has the ability to produce great results, but it takes some work and a fair bit of knowledge about the included controls. Personally, I find it a lot harder to get a great result with Photomatix than I do with HDR Merge in Luminar Neo. The Luminar Neo workflow is very different – you merge your brackets, then move into Luminar Neo’s regular editing tools, which are… Read more »
Can I move my images directly from LR ?
Hi Ed – As far as I can tell, HDR Merge only works with Luminar Neo as a standalone. The Lightroom plugin bypasses the Catalog, where HDR Merge is accessed and only lets you edit one image at a time. For now, my best workaround is from LR, to right-click on an image in your bracketed set and choose Show in Finder/Explorer. Then select the bracketed images in Finder/Explorer, right-click, and choose Open With > Luminar Neo. This will open the images as single image edits and you can then merge/edit them. When you’re done, you’ll need to manually Export… Read more »