Originally Posted by
DanK
Combining images with more than one exposure often leads to a composite that has a wonky distribution of tones. This is because pixels are being selected based on exposure rather than how you want them to look. You can see this, for example, if you use the LR merge-to-HDR function. Run it once with "auto" turned off, and the histogram and appearance are likely to leave something to be desired. Run it with "auto", and you'll get a very different image, with LR's algorithm for correcting this applied.
I don't use the auto setting much, and when I do, I treat it as a starting point. (with a parametric editor, you can always go backwards.) I just assume that some tonality adjustments will be needed and that some of them will be local adjustments.