I use picmonkey and do not see what I want. I want to take say 3-5 photo's and have a program mesh them together for me into an HDR shot. Also, do I have to have photoshop before I can get LR? Sorry, still trying to learn.
Luminance is a free source HDR programme. It has moved from this page, but there are links and this page tells you about it
http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
This shot was processed using Luminance:
As was this:
There's also GIMP https://www.gimp.org/ as a free source version of Photoshop or Zoner or Zoner https://www.zoner.com/ which has a free or paid version but you can do a lot with the free version.
@miata2u You can download the free Nik Collection from Google https://www.google.com/nikcollection/ The HDR program HDR Efex Pro works standalone (you don't need Lightroom or Aperture). It's very easy to use.
I recommend the Adobe CC (Creative Cloud) subscription. For $10 a month you get Lightroom and Photoshop. As somebody else mentioned then you can download the free Nik tools from Google and they integrate right in to LR and PS seamlessly. You don't need LR before PS or vise versa. Buying a stand alone version of PS is very expensive and updates are manual whereas with the CC Subscription you always get the latest there is.
As Pat mentioned, LR stands alone. You can also buy it instead of pay them monthly. I also buy OnOne software which is either standalone or integrates with LR and PS. It has many modules that I love and it is relatively inexpensive and easy to use. There are several HDR options within OnOne. https://www.on1.com/ I think there is also a trial version or a free version with fewer options.
I tried Gimp it's not intuitive despite a YouTube tutorial!! I too am looking at learning editting so going to follow your thread here!! Until I get to grips with free am reluctant to pay subscription!!
I bought HDR Pro from NIK before Google bought NIK. It will work as a stand alone program. You can get it for free now: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
Pat also has a good suggestion. I've been using CC for just over a year now. I still have so much to learn about Photoshop. I've been using LIghtroom for a few years. It is more intuitive than PS, but PS is so powerful.
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http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
This shot was processed using Luminance:
As was this:
There's also GIMP https://www.gimp.org/ as a free source version of Photoshop or Zoner or Zoner https://www.zoner.com/ which has a free or paid version but you can do a lot with the free version.
Both work on Windows and Linux.
I bought HDR Pro from NIK before Google bought NIK. It will work as a stand alone program. You can get it for free now: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
Pat also has a good suggestion. I've been using CC for just over a year now. I still have so much to learn about Photoshop. I've been using LIghtroom for a few years. It is more intuitive than PS, but PS is so powerful.