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Originally Posted by
DanK
I don't do this sort of work, but I have one thought that might be useful. I too largely avoid HDR because of the distortions it can create. However, there is an alternative to HDR on the one hand and manual blending on the other: expsoure fusion, also called exposure blending. This simply goes through a stack of images, selecting well exposed areas for inclusion in the composite. It's a nice option when the image is complex enough that manual blending is a lot of work or impractical. However, it does often require substantial tonal adjustments; for example, the composite is often low in contrast.
For this purpose, I use a lightroom plugin called Lightroom Enfuse.