Stacking photos with Lightroom

Operating System: MAC OSX High Sierra
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom 6.14 final perpetual update

I thought this was in fact possible using either HDR or Panorama Merge features, but it is not, let me explain:

I have taken several photos of the Northern Lights and want all of them stacked into one, but if I use HDR, it keeps the first photo I click on, and with Panorama is trickier: it might refuse to do it since it might detect anomalies (Aurora Borealis in different parts in different photos).

With HDR I guess it thinks how to keep the extreme light and dark margins, so in fact it overrides the regions I want in the final photos: think of Aurora Borealis are in different parts of the frame for each photo, under the same composition.

This is a classic example of an operation where Layers are your friend. Consider Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as your vehicle to get the shot you are after. It will allow you to stack/blend layers to get the composition you want while building up the various iterations of aurora into a single photograph. Lightroom is probably not the right tool for this type of compositing.

RikkFlohr said:

This is a classic example of an operation where Layers are your friend. Consider Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as your vehicle to get the shot you are after. It will allow you to stack/blend layers to get the composition you want while building up the various iterations of aurora into a single photograph. Lightroom is probably not the right tool for this type of compositing.

Click to expand...

I kind of sensed that this was the right answer, that is, Lightroom is not the right tool for this.
Since, I do not like the cloud option and the need to pay for a monthly subscription, what are the limitations of Photoshop Elements (since I get it on a disk)

The main limitation is that Elements can only work with 8 bit TIFFs/PSDs when using layers. You should also check carefully what blend modes are available in Elements - I have no idea if all the same modes are available in Elements as are in PS.

Thank you all for your answers.
I have a final question just to conclude this thread:
I do work only with RAW files, so Layers do not handle RAW files? I see that I need to transform RAW into PSD, since that is the type Layers handle.

When you send a RAW file to an external editor such as Photoshop Elements, it will always create a copy in TIFF or PSD format. Whether or not you are going to create layers is irrelevant. You are not forced to use PSD, TIFF supports layers too.

Actually, Adobe recommend that you use TIFF instead of PSD, but you have the right idea.

Hope this would be the last one on this matter:
How about On1 Photo Raw 2018 software versus Adobe Photoshop Elements, which seems to crash a lot on MAC OSX?
Coming back: I think a better choice for MAC users is in fact Affinity Photo, any suggestions?
I do read a lot of reviews about crashing often on MAC OSX regarding Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018...

FWIW, I'm on Windows, and use Affinity Photo. I do have On1 Photo Raw 2017, but rarely use it now.

I’m not sure whether what you want resembles to “Focus Stacking” but if that’s the case, you might want to check out LR/Enfuse.
In a couple of days (maybe weeks) I’m about to dig into that plug-in for stacking my Extreme Macro shots


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