The basics

ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5.0 FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
9.03 Exposure
Suitable for Elements – 5.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0 | Diffi culty
level – Basic | Related techniques – 2.03, 9.11
As the lighting conditions can change
dramatically whilst capturing the sequence
of images you need to make up a panorama,
it is important that the camera’s exposure
be set manually. Leaving the camera set to
auto exposure (Program, Aperture priority or
Shutter speed priority) will result in changes in
brightness of sequential images, especially if you
Manual exposure >> Set your
are capturing pictures throughout a full 360˚
camera to manual exposure to
sweep of the scene.
ensure consistency across the
sequence of images.
Take readings from both the shadow and highlight areas in several
sections of the environment before selecting an average exposure setting, or one that preserves
important highlight or shadow detail. Lock this shutter speed and aperture combination into
your camera and use the same settings for all the source images. If the scene contains massive
changes in brightness this will mean that some parts of the picture are rendered pure white or
pure black (with no details); so you may want to consider using the steps in technique 9.11 as
a way of capturing more details in these areas. To ensure that you have suffi cient picture data
to complete the technique capture two or three complete sequences with varying exposures.
The exposure for one sequence should be adjusted to record highlights; one for shadows and if
required a third can be used to capture mid tones.
Use your camera’s exposure bracketing system to shoot the over-, mid and
underexposures automatically.
Average
exposure>>
To help ensure
that your
exposure setting is
suitable for all the
source images
take several
readings from all
over the scene
and then change
your camera to
the average of
these results.
Book resources at: www.adv-elements.com
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MAKING BETTER PANORAMAS