Skylum, the creators of Luminar Neo have announced their upcoming release of an extension for Luminar Neo called “HDR Merge“. This is the first extension for Luminar Neo that brings the power of Aurora HDR (and even more) to Luminar Neo.

For those who are not aware, HDR is a technique which often consists of stacking multiple exposures of the same image (i.e., under and over exposed) to create a more detailed photo which brings out the details in the highlights and shadows. When done well it can lead to great results but when done poorly it often leaves pictures looking a little cartoonish. It can also be done on a single photo, but with better results (typically) from multiple images.

Skylum have provided some visuals showing the before and after appearance of images processed with HDR Merge (below) but once I get access I will aim to show the results in some of my own photos.

As you can see it looks like at least from the images provided that the extension does a good job of creating good looking HDR images which still look realistic and don’t look cartoonish.

Following the release of HDR Merge, Skylum have reported that Aurora HDR will be discontinued.

The extension (which requires Luminar Neo) is available for pre order between now and July 28th when it is launched the discounts will no longer apply. If you are interested in finding out more you can do so by clicking here.