32 bit files for HDR question

Yes.

You could do that, and I’ve done that in the past, although nowadays I use Nikon View NX2 to do the initial conversion to 16 bit tiff.

One thing you will want to be aware of — if the images aren’t aligned perfectly, you will have trouble with the HDR process. I stack them in Photoshop and do a manual alignment. Sometimes anchoring one or another layer will make for a better alignment compared to doing the whole thing automatically. Sometimes only one layer is out of alignment and so I only align that layer with its neighbor instead of attempting to align all the layers at once.

Also, you will get better alignment if you correct your images for lens distortion ahead of time.

It is a tedious, time-consuming process, but the end result may be better. Not all of us have a tripod made of solid granite

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