Recently I was able to get into an abandoned factory and as you’d expect the scenery was extremely unique compared to the typical inner building feel.  Since I’d read about Lightroom 4.1 and higher being able to handle 32 bit tiff files I was eager to try putting together a few hdr files to see what I was able to do with them.  All I have to say is, AMAZING!  In this post I’d like to share how simple it is to assemble a 32 bit hdr file, giving you the most photorealistic hdr file I’ve yet to see and to top it off it’s easier than before.

To start, select your bracketed exposures, right click, go to edit, merge to HDR PRO in Photoshop.  For this image, I have three different exposures (-2, 0, +2), but there could be many more depending on the contrast of the scene.  IMPORTANT:  I have changed my preferences for Lightroom to use tiff files for external editing because tiff files work with 32 bit hdr editing in this method compared to psd files and are more universal than psd files.

When the exposures load into photoshop the screen will display complicated sliders if set to 8 or 16 bit.  These sliders can be used to create a more artistic or painterly feel to an image but when you click on 32 Bit…

you get this screen!  Only one slider and it’s only a luminosity slider that doesn’t affect the end output for the method we are using.  Simply click ok and once the image comes up in photoshop just save the file, so long as Lightroom is set to tiff file for external editing.   If not, save the file as a tiff file and reimport into Lightroom.  Once taken into Lightroom the file is equivalent to having a file with a huge dynamic range.  In my opinion this is the best way to create an hdr file that gives the most photorealistic look and is by far the easiest way to make a file with a higher dynamic range that looks like the same scene you were seeing.  Below is the finished hdr file after I used Lightroom to bring back all of the detail in the highlights and shadows and making sure there were blacks where I wanted.  Then I right clicked in Lightroom and clicked edit in Photoshop to add some finishing touches.