EnfuseGUI vs HDR Merge Master

EnfuseGUI is a desktop application that creates high dynamic range images by blending photographs made at different exposures. Swipeware describes uses including combining room and window exposures, night photography, and focus stacking. It accepts TIFF and JPEG files plus raw formats such as NEF, CR2, and DNG. Align Image Stack helps line up hand-held shots before blending. Batch processing and multi-processor use support larger sets of images, and EXIF data transfers to the final image. The maker describes EnfuseGUI as a graphical interface exposing all options of the Enfuse engine. It runs on Windows and macOS. A 30-day free trial is available inside the application after downloading and installing it. One license key activates the application on two computers.

HDR Merge Master is a free, GPL-3.0 open-source tool that uses Blender’s compositor to combine exposure brackets in batches. It outputs 32-bit OpenEXR or Radiance HDR files and creates tonemapped JPG previews alongside them. Multiple input folders can be added, with optional recursive subfolder processing and JSON batch import or export. Alignment choices include none, Hugin pre-alignment, and MTB alignment, depending on Blender version and mode. A headless command-line mode supports folder processing, JSON input, alignment, thread settings, and cleanup. Camera RAW processing requires RawTherapee, with adjacent PP3 profiles applied automatically. Documented workflows include Blender, RawTherapee, Hugin, Luminance HDR, and PTGui; a script can replace JPG paths with EXR paths in PTGui PTS projects. Blender 4.5 LTS and 5.1 LTS are actively tested, while older versions use a reduced-feature legacy script. The tool does not remove ghosting, so a steady tripod is advised.