Getting Started

Choose the right merge for your photo

Your First Merge

Select your photos in Lightroom Classic's Library module, then choose Export › Merge Raw Files from the right-click menu, or File › Plug-in Extras › Merge Raw Files. Choose an alignment mode and blend mode, then click OK.

Recommended Settings

WorkflowAlignmentBlend
Star TrailsAlign Stars - Sky TrackingAI Mask - Star Trails & Foreground
Milky Way LandscapesAlign Stars - Sky TrackingAI Mask - Fixed Stars & Foreground
Focus StackingAuto Align - Use All FramesFocus Stacking - Automatic Depth Map
Smoother Water or CloudsNo Alignment - TripodNormal - Blur Motion
Reduce Handheld NoiseNight Align - Smart Frame SelectionMedian - Remove Motion
Remove People from a SceneAuto Align - Use All FramesMedian - Remove Motion

Alignment Mode

The MergeRAW merge dialog showing Alignment Mode and Blend Mode

Choose based on how the camera or subject moved between shots.

No Alignment - Tripod

For a steady tripod or deliberate multiple exposures. Focus stacks still get focus-breathing correction; use Auto Align if the camera also moved.

Auto Align - Use All Frames

For handheld photos or a bumped tripod. Aligns the photos and keeps every frame.

Night Align - Smart Frame Selection

For low-light handheld bursts at matching exposures. Drops blurry or poorly aligned frames. Start with Median for a cleaner, sharper result; choose Normal to blur motion or Deghost to freeze it. Use Auto Align for exposure brackets.

Pixel Shift

For a camera's pixel-shift or high-resolution sequence. Select one complete sequence only. Most cameras use 4, 8, 16 or 32 frames; Fujifilm X-Trans uses 5 or 20. Choose Normal, or Deghost if something moved.

Keep separate captures in separate merges. To process several captures at once, use Merge Raw Files (Advanced) › Batch Mode › Merge Each Sequence, or Merge Each Stack for Lightroom stacks. Pixel Shift also works with either Focus Stacking blend: select the complete sequences from each focus plane.

Blend Mode

Choose the result you want for motion, noise or depth of field. Available blends depend on the alignment mode.

Normal - Blur Motion

Reduces noise and softens movement. Use it for smoother water, clouds or traffic, or a cleaner image of a still subject.

Deghost - Freeze Motion

Reduces noise while keeping moving subjects from your active photo. Useful for people or wind-blown leaves. With Night Align, MergeRAW chooses the reference photo automatically.

Median - Remove Motion

Removes passing people, cars and other moving objects when each part of the background is clear in most shots. Under Night Align, use it for a cleaner handheld burst.

Lighten - Star Trails & Multi Exposure

Builds up bright subjects against a dark background: star trails, fireworks or light painting. Automatic repair helps smooth trail joins and reduce false color. See Night Sky Workflows for the two workflow choices.

Darken - Multi Exposure on Light Background

Builds up dark subjects against a bright background, such as birds against snow.

Focus Stacking

Combines a focus bracket into one photo with greater depth of field. Shoot near to far, covering everything you want sharp. Use Tripod for a fixed camera or Auto Align for camera movement.

Choose Focus Stacking - Automatic Depth Map for an automatic merge, or Focus Stacking - Custom Depth Map to correct the map interactively. Both retain extra fine detail in the final DNG. See the Focus Depth Editor guide for the tools, live preview and keyboard shortcuts.

Night Sky Workflows

Choose between automatic masks and an editable custom mask for pinpoint stars or trails over a clean foreground. See the sky workflow guide and interactive sky mask editor.

Advanced Settings

For batch processing, hot pixel removal, dark and flat frames, demosaic choices, Output Options and troubleshooting, see Advanced Settings. The defaults match the simple dialog.

TIFFs from the Command Line

The command-line tool also merges unsigned 8-bit or 16-bit RGB and grayscale TIFFs, without Adobe DNG Converter. Lightroom's merge dialogs accept raw and DNG files only.

TIFFs must have matching dimensions and all be RGB or all grayscale. Keep them separate from RAW/DNG inputs. Embed a standard color profile such as sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB or Display P3. Untagged RGB is treated as sRGB; untagged grayscale uses gamma 2.2.

CMYK, palette, alpha-channel, multi-page and floating-point TIFFs are unsupported. Convert lookup-table profiles to a standard working space first. The result is a DNG, but it cannot restore raw data lost during TIFF export.

Editing Sky Masks and Focus Depth Maps

For manual control over a skyline or a focus-stack boundary, the command-line tool can export a map for editing and reuse it in a new merge. Sky masks select sky versus foreground; focus depth maps select which source photo supplies each area. See the command-line reference for formats and save/edit/load examples. In Lightroom, choose a Custom Mask sky blend or Custom Depth Map focus blend to edit interactively without using the command line.

The Other Tools