How to Merge exposures into an HDR image

Set up your camera

To shoot our three source photos, we popped the camera on a tripod. This ensures that the three shots align when merged. Like your iPhone’s HDR mode, Affinity Photo can automatically align handheld shots too.

Snap three shots

Set your camera to manual focus; autofocus may result in misalignment. Set the Auto Exposure Bracketing mode to shoot three exposures with a bracket such as +2EV/-2EV, then take the three shots.

Select photos

After popping your bracketed source photos into a folder on your Mac, open Affinity Photo. Choose File > New HDR Merge. Click Add, locate your bracketed photos, hold Cmd and select each photo in turn, then click Open.

Adjust settings

If the pics are handheld shots, checkmark Automatically Align Images. If there’s a moving subject (like a flag), select Automatically Remove Ghosts. Also, Noise Reduction if needed. Keep ‘Tone map HDR image’, then click OK.

Create a composite

Affinity Photo aligns the shots and uses tone mapping to blend the correctly exposed areas. This reveals a composite image, detailing shadows, midtones, and highlights. Here’s our image in the Tone Mapping Persona.

Play with presets

The app’s Tone Mapping Persona has a collection of presets. They adjust various image properties to create a range of looks. Experiment with presets to get an HDR look that suits, such as the Maximum Grit preset.

Adjust contrast

Choose the default Natural preset to adjust the image manually. Keep Tone Compression full. By sliding Local Contrast to 80 per cent, we can reveal shadow and highlight tree detail in and make stone textures stand out.

Sharpen details

Checkmark the Enhance panel and boost Saturation to 30 per cent and Vibrance to 50. Vibrance increases the saturation of landscape colors. Checkmark Detail. Raise the Radius 74 per cent and Amount to 65 per cent.

Apply the changes

Our composite image displays detail through a wide tonal range. It features classic HDR properties, such as saturated colors and emphasized textures. Click Apply to take this image into the standard Photo Persona.