In one of our recent tutorials, we talked about how to decide whether or not it is a good idea to shot bracketed images and create an HDR.

In this situation, I strongly considered using an HDR technique to help expose for my subjects’ faces.  Why?  Well as you will see in the video, it was very difficult to be able to place a flash, as my subjects and I were both perched up on a rock ledge!

Sometimes however, bracketing is not the best answer; flash is.  In this tutorial, we will look at the tricks I used to set the flash and get this shot before the sunset light faded away.

 

 

The Scene:

MS1_7567

The Lighting Diagram:

lighting-diagram-2013.02.04--Joshua-Tree

The Final Panorama:

MS1_7581-Edit

 

In a future video we may delve into the processing of this image, if you are interested.  Unfortunately, a warning beforehand: I probably spent hours and hours fine tuning this original shot that I created years ago.  However we can still get into the essential skills of panoramic merging.  There are also plenty of tutorials on Panoramic HDR techniques in our HDR Workshop DVD, which you can read about by clicking HERE.

Take care, and happy clicking,
=Matthew Saville=

For more HDR education, be sure to check out HDR Tutorial by SLR Lounge. This comprehensive “gold standard” guide will give you a mastery of HDR photography, from the scene considerations to the actual shooting to the post production. Click here for more info.