Working with HDR in Pixelmator Pro Automations Using the Shortcuts App

When working with HDR (High Dynamic Range) images in Pixelmator Pro using the Shortcuts app, you may encounter an issue with the Convert Image action.

Issue description

Specifically, this action does not allow you to specify HDR output. As a result, if you attempt to do batch processing, the HDR data may be stripped from of the images.

However, there is a workaround for this issue. Here's what your shortcut should look like:

1. Convert: As the first action, we convert our imported file to .PXD, explicitly marking that we wish to Load HDR Content (It's under Show More)

2. The 2nd Convert acton: The second action will also be a Convert one, but this time, we're converting our HDR PXD file to JPEG. Since the HDR information has been loaded, it will export as an HDR JPEG.

3. Save: Our last action will be save, which basically directs the resulting file on where it should be saved.

This workflow will allow you to export an HDR JPEG from an HDR file with all of the relevant information intact. These steps will work for any of the other supported for export HDR formats as well. You'll also be able to customise the Shortcut to better fit your use case, just make sure that any actions that you add are placed in-between the 1st and 2nd Convert actions. As a visual example, here's what the Shortcut will look like if we only add the steps described here: (Here, our source file is a HDR .RAF file from a Fujifilm camera)