Blending two bracketed photos (not merging)?

[NBaxter]

Hi all

I'm planning a sunset/rise seascape image I'd like to try and bracket my images because I don't have an ND grad filter. Obviously if i did a normal HDR merge I'd expect the sea to look awful (because of the movement between the photos being taken).

What would be the best process in affinity to follow in order to blend 2/3 bracketed images like this? 

Is it even a good idea or should I just succumb to purchasing an ND grad filter? Sorry if this is a little basic!

Many thanks

Nick

[John Rostron]

5 hours ago, NBaxter said:

Obviously if i did a normal HDR merge I'd expect the sea to look awful (because of the movement between the photos being taken).

The obvious suggestion here is to try it and see!  I suspect that only the nearer waves would show perceptible motion between shots. I would suggest that you stack and align the 2-3 images and apply a gradient mask to each of the upper images which would mask out the parts that are the 'wrong' exposure. Essentially that is what the HDR algorithm does behind the scenes.

John