HDR photography aims to capture a wider range of light and dark areas in a single image, allowing for more detail and realism.

Focus stacking is a technique used to combine multiple images with different focus points to create a single image with extended depth of field. It is not commonly used in HDR photography post-processing.

Tone mapping is used in HDR photography to compress the wide dynamic range of the HDR image into a narrower range that can be displayed on a standard monitor or printed on paper, while preserving the detail and realism of the scene.

Aurora HDR is a popular HDR photography post-processing software, but it is not as widely used as Adobe Photoshop, Luminance HDR, or Photomatix Pro.

Exposure blending allows the photographer to manually select the best parts of each exposure and combine them into a single image, giving them more control over the final result.

HDR merging is a technique for combining multiple exposures into a single HDR image, not for reducing noise.

White balance adjustment is used in HDR photography to ensure that the colors in the image are accurate and consistent, regardless of the lighting conditions in which the photos were taken.

Median filter is a noise reduction technique, not a sharpening technique.

Graduated neutral density filters allow the photographer to selectively darken certain areas of the image, such as the sky, while leaving other areas, such as the foreground, properly exposed.

Noise reduction is not a technique for creating a more artistic and stylized image, but rather for improving image quality.

Using a tripod in HDR photography is important for keeping the camera steady and preventing camera shake, allowing for precise composition and framing of the shot, and enabling the use of a graduated neutral density filter.

Focus stacking is a technique for combining multiple images with different focus points to create a single image with extended depth of field. It is not commonly used for merging multiple exposures in HDR photography.

Taking a bracketed exposure series allows the photographer to capture a wide range of exposures, which can then be combined in post-processing to create a HDR image with more detail and dynamic range.

HDR merging is a technique for combining multiple exposures into a single HDR image, not for reducing halos and artifacts.

Polarizing filters are used in HDR photography to reduce glare and reflections, enhance the saturation of colors, and darken the sky and make clouds more prominent.