Ever notice that when you assemble an HDR image you often end up with spots in the sky that you never even noticed in the original images? HDR algorithms seem to accentuate contrast, and “invisible” spots can get the proverbial light shined upon them once they’ve gone through the HDR process.

One option is to just process the HDR and remove the spots afterwards. Another is to get rid of the spots first. In Lightroom, if you remove all the spots in one image, you can then synchronize the spot removal to all the other images in the HDR sequence. But if you couldn’t see the spots in the first place, how do you even know you need to remove them?

Let’s check out what the new “Visualize Spots” feature within the Spot Removal tool can do.

In Lightroom 5, select one of the images in your intended HDR sequence. Probably one of the lighter images will work best for this but it might not really matter.

Go to the Develop Module and click on the Spot Removal tool. Note that there’s an extra feature that’s been added to the Lightroom Toolbar.

If you don’t see this, press the shortcut “T” on your keyboard.

Check the Visualize Spots box or hit the shortcut “A” and look at what happens. You’ll see a high contrast black and white version of your image. You’ll also see the more obvious spots in the sky. Move the Visualize Spots slider to the right and you’ll probably see even more.

To zoom in and move around, use the Navigator at the top of the left hand panel in the Develop Module.

Now just use the spot removal tool as you normally would to remove all spots in the sky. When you’re satisfied, close the Spot removal too, select the rest of the images in the HDR sequence (keeping the image from which you just removed the spots as the “most selected”) and click the Sync button. A dialog box will pop up that allows you to choose what to sync. Click “Select None” and then check the Spot Removal box.

Now all the spots are removed from all the images in the HDR sequence and you can continue using your HDR software of choice.