For this reason, it’s best to process Raw files before using Photomerge. Panorama works well, too, and is the least problematic of the three, although all Photomerge options only produce a processed JPEG rather than a DNG file that can be further processed. Focus Stack works well but it did introduce chromatic aberration where there was originally none on a high-contrast edge. HDR unfortunately only offers four presets, none of which look great, and some manual control over how exposures are merged would be a huge improvement here. Photomerge brings with it Focus Stack, HDR and Panorama.
But one feature that has been curiously left out here is a skin smoothing/clean-up tool there is a Skin Tune Tool in the Edit mode that can perform this function, but it would just be better if all the portrait editing tools were in a single tool. You can brighten eyes and even add make-up, and the results overall can look great. AI Face Edit allows you to make what you might call structural changes to faces with ease, with the ability to make features larger or smaller alongside changing their shape.
