I Have A Cunning Plan!

By BrianWard

Learning your lines....

This is a long one - but if you want to learn......
Each shots starting point is identical - 
exif: iso 200, 1/125th, f8, manual focus, the shutter speed alters to get the appropriate under or over exposure for the bracket.
After watching Mr.James (may contain Photoshop) Popsys on the YouTube I've been trying to refine my Panorama workflow.
Not ideal as handheld, but you can get results if you're careful without a tripod - just need to watch your shutter speed and levelling when bracketing.
So - Bracket your shots (I use +/- 3 stops in 1 stop increments for 7 images in total). Because I'm hand-holding I use the in-camera level, as this is "learning", both the horizontal and vertical levels - wouldn't be such a problem if on a tripod...as long as it were level!
Overlap each shot by 50% - so here, for a final 7 stitch image, I'm taking 49 images in total.
Import into Lightroom, take out the shots (+/- 1 and 2 EV) I'm not going to use to merge to HDR. Do the "basic" adjustments to image one - add preset "punch" and "sharpen - scenery", plus lens correction then sync to the remaining 20 images.
Merge each set of 3 shots (+3, 0, -3 EV) to HDR.
Merge to Panorama then do any further local adjustments as required (it's a personal preference here on in).
Bob's your Uncle, Fanny's your Aunt :)
Anyway, it was fun, and I learned something! :)

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