Stacking images to increase Dynamic Range

Hi popcorn,

In Elements 2018 the Photomerge feature is in Guided Edit > Photomerge > Photomerge Exposure. Adobe moved this feature from Expert Edit to Guided Edit starting with Elements 14.

EDIT:

I'm sending a PM to Andrei Doubrovski bringing this thread to his attention. He is best qualified to address the questions you have about Elements+. Hang in there!

This is quite the challenge.

Caveat: I can't do what I am going to suggest because I do not have enough gear or the knowledge.

The idea might be use at least 2 remote flashes set at different exposures i.e. burst brightness. One flash would be inside to illuminate the "window in shadow" and one or two flashes to illuminate the "dark trees with deep shadows." I'd suggest M (vs A priority) exposure at (say) f8, 1/200 second and ISO as you wish (i.e. whatever works.) Even if this was not perfect it might reduce the extremes in shadows and make processing easier. 

Another option might be to make a collage of 3 or 4 images depicting what you want to show. 

Good luck.   

Thanks every one,
The flash option is beyond my equipment inventory and my capability.
In answer to some of the above, I always shoot in Raw. I have found from focus stacking macro images that changes in aperture seem to cause alignment problems so I keep the aperture constant.

My first attempts at the view from my wife's aspect of the garden from her bed are quite acceptable, but certainly don't do justice to the wonderful garden.

I eventually selected the strongest histogram from the three exposures at each focus point and processed these in ACR.
I was surprised to see that the under-exposed images gave me the best histograms.

I applied a crop to include only the bright garden areas and edited the image ignoring the dark shadows of the interior which dominated the whole image histogram.
I then removed the crop to get the whole image back so that they all were identical in size for alignment in the stack.

I could not get enough dynamic range to handle the darkest shadows in the background, despite taking the shadow slider to it's limit, I still blown blacks ( I am not sure if blacks can be blown but I am sure you know what I mean) and pushing shadows to the limit seemed to put a haze on the image. I am sure that exposure stacking would have solved my problem. I will give the merge functions in the Guided Edit a try.
I was amazed by the divergent readings I got from the same white point in the different images, eventually I used a biased average.

To get uniformity for the focus stack, I tried to get each processed image to have the same tonal range.

I exported the images to the Editor, I again made a selection of the bright garden areas inside the window panes.
I inverted the selection and used a levels layer with mask to process the dark interior, I managed to get the effect I was looking for.
I made some other minor enhancements to the images.

I had set up my tripod behind the bed and about 4m from the window.The image taken at f=8 at 1/180th, ISO 200 and with the focal point approximately at the hyperfocal distance, were almost all in focus except the window frame.

By then it was midnight and, my wife was insisting that it was past my bed-time, so reluctantly I had to leave the stacking for another time.

Helen, I will report back later today. Maybe the out of focus foreground will be included in the photo book after all!

PS! Can someone please tell me how to use spell check in these posts. I keep a blank word document open on my other screen to test the words I am uncertain of.
There must be an easier way!

Hi
I have now completed processing.
There was quite a bit of noise so I applied the Denoise filter from Franzis, which helped.
The picture has no zip, maybe over processed, I am not very happy.

Helen, the image has no wife in it, it is her view of the garden when she is semi sitting in bed drinking her early morning coffee.

The garden is the focus, is almost just a record of her garden. Sorry to say it has no story to tell, just a precious memory.
The roses are in full bloom.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I have a feeling that with your attention to detail you will end up with something that you are quite pleased with in the end.