diff --git a/modules/photo/src/merge.cpp b/modules/photo/src/merge.cpp
index 7adfb5ec68..295e03c95f 100644
--- a/modules/photo/src/merge.cpp
+++ b/modules/photo/src/merge.cpp
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ public:
             if(channels == 3) {
                 weights[i] = weights[i].mul(saturation);
             }
-            weights[i] = weights[i].mul(wellexp);
+            weights[i] = weights[i].mul(wellexp) + 1e-12f;
             weight_sum += weights[i];
         }
         int maxlevel = static_cast<int>(logf(static_cast<float>(min(size.width, size.height))) / logf(2.0f));
diff --git a/modules/photo/test/test_hdr.cpp b/modules/photo/test/test_hdr.cpp
index 82ae25f525..27773fb384 100644
--- a/modules/photo/test/test_hdr.cpp
+++ b/modules/photo/test/test_hdr.cpp
@@ -166,6 +166,16 @@ TEST(Photo_MergeMertens, regression)
     merge->process(images, result);
     result.convertTo(result, CV_8UC3, 255);
     checkEqual(expected, result, 3, "Mertens");
+
+    Mat uniform(100, 100, CV_8UC3);
+    uniform = Scalar(0, 255, 0);
+
+    images.clear();
+    images.push_back(uniform);
+
+    merge->process(images, result);
+    result.convertTo(result, CV_8UC3, 255);
+    checkEqual(uniform, result, 1e-2f, "Mertens");
 }
 
 TEST(Photo_MergeDebevec, regression)