Panorama comes from two words that literally mean “all” and “sight”. The purpose of a panorama is to captures as much of a field of view as possible, usually by combining several individual shots into a single image. High Dynamic Range (HDR) panoramas combine High Dynamic Range photography with panoramic photography techniques.

Panoramic images date back to before photography, as there are many panoramic paintings. Panoramic photography is as old as photography itself. The first photographic panoramas were simply shots overlaid on top of one another. More sophisticated techniques were invented to create what appeared to be “seamless” photos. With modern digital photography, this is easy to accomplish with panoramic stitching software, which we will cover later. With this in mind, this tutorial will show, how to compose an HDR panorama, then generally cover the post-processing of such images.

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Black and white photography was the first form of photography to be invented over 150 years ago, and has remained popular since then for its aesthetic and artistic properties. Traditional black and white photography is more or less is the result of monochromatic, light-sensitive chemicals on some sort of medium such as film or plates. Some chemicals respond to different colors of light more than others. A combination of light color and film selection  with black and white photography produce different effects when the colors are represented in monochrome. That is, if a film that was hypersensitive to red, it would have bright white areas if the light source was originally red. Traditionally, photographers had to choose a type of black and white film to whatever effect he or she was going for, and if he or she had control over lighting, would adjust lighting according to the film. Some photographers still prefer this method because of the limitation of digital cameras

When using a digital camera,  a photographer obviously does not have the option to choose a type of film for a desired effect. Most cameras only have one sensor, so this requires that either the camera convert to image to a monochrome image, or the photographer convert in in post-processing. Some cameras have options when converting images to black and white, but for the most control, shooting and saving an image in a RAW format gives the photographer the maximum number of options when post-processing.

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There are plenty of people in the world who like and use flash photography effectively, but as a rule of thumb I prefer to avoid it whenever possible. I am not a professional photographer (at best I’d consider myself semi-pro as I’ve been paid occasionally to shoot here and there) therefore haven’t the will or the means to invest in professional grade lighting with multiple flashes, reflecting screen, etc. So, rather than trying to control light, I adapt to it by attempting to make the most of the available lighting. Here are some things I look at when I start to take portraits as such.

1.) In low-light settings such as with night photography, interior lighting, candles, or seasonal lights such as Christmas lights, I usually get as close to the light source as possible. Sometimes, I like to include the light source in the shot as a foreground element to help enhance the depth-of-field or set the mood for the shot. This is particularly nice with Christmas trees, lights, and candles. Interior lights can be harsh if they are overhead, so I will opt for lamp light if it is available for indoor portraits. In this case, I try and fill the frame with the subjects face and not include the light source.  Be careful not to get too close, especially with wide aperture lenses because the focus will fall off rather quick! I’m can count  how many shots I’ve thrown away because my depth of field was too shallow because I was too close! I shot this image in a cathedral lit mainly by candles. I bumped the ISO on the camera up and shot at f/2.8 with the candles in the foreground to help capture the reverential setting of the building.

2.) When shooting in bright sunlight such as outdoors or indoors next to windows and doors, I opt for shady areas to eliminate shadows. With windows and doors, having the subject stand next to the window or door can cast shadows across his or her face to create some drama in the shot. In the evenings and mornings, a sunset or sunrise can offer the same sort of effect. Also, bright sunlight can be used a back-light such that the background is overexposed but the subject it properly exposed. This gives sort of an ethereal effect. In this shot, I intentionally made the couple out of focus to give a silhouette-like effect and make the shot feel more dreamy.

3.)As with all photography, don’t be afraid to mess up, and shoot lots of the same pose. I try for quality and quantity to maximize getting good shots

4.) Because natural light is not always even like controlled light, I find it quintessential to focus and meter on the subjects eyes or cheeks.  Most cameras nowadays have some sort of facial detection built in which the camera uses to adjust the metering of the shot. DSLR’s nowadays having spot-metering which meters the image to a selection within a frame rather than the whole frame, which I use in portraiture. Backgrounds in portraits are, generally speaking, distracting, so under or over exposing them can actually help the portrait. I think I was a little too close on this shot, but it was a fun grab. I metered on her eyes.

5.)For this type of portraiture, as most all types, prefer a wide aperture (that is a low “f” number) and medium to long zoom to help increase the perceived depth of field. I typically shoot portraits at f/1.8-3.2 and use a 50mm prime or a zoom lens between 50mm and 100mm. This varies with cameras. I have a 50D with an APC sized sensor so the equivalent zoom for a “full frame” camera is something like 70-160mm at the same aperture settings. On point and shoot, the focal length may be between 25mm and 50mm.

These tips certainly aren’t gospel, just things that I do when I’m doing portraits. I hope that you find these helpful and happy shooting!

Original Image After HDR Merge

One of the problems, so it seems when shooting outdoors in bright light is that exposure seemed to have a yellow tinge to them. If the same shot was shot under cloud cover or when the sun was not beating down, the foliage would appear green. The yellow tinge is obviously caused by the sun’s bright yellow light beating down from overhead. Fixing this in post processing is rather simple with a few basic steps. (Not a real complex how-to, but I find myself doing this quite often, so I thought I’d share how I make foliage greener.)

1.) Slide the yellow hues toward green

Adjust Yellow Hue

2.) Darken the green channel’s luminance

Adjust Green Luminance

Finally, make any other adjustments you want…I saturated the blue some to give the sky more definition and cropped the image some to.

Final Image

Street photography is a broad category in photography, but in essence street photographers attempt to capture in an artistic, documentary fashion everyday sort of things in a candid manner as the photographer saw them with little or no manipulation to the image. The category is somewhat of a misnomer in that it is not restricted to streets–one could do such shooting at parks, malls, restaurants, stores, markets, and any other place where people gather  and interact.

I find this sort of photography to both fun and challenging because the sorts of shots taken are generally ad hoc  and otherwise unplanned. But the diversity does not mean one cannot apply some principles that will help one’s results better. So here are my tips:

1.) Shoot, Shoot, Shoot

You have quality…why not lots of quality? When I’m out on the town with my camera in hand, I shoot all sorts of stuff. I don’t like to waste shots, but nor am I afraid to take a picture of something I think might make an interesting photo. I remember when I got my first digital camera, I had to be selective, but now storage is cheap so I do not have to be as selective.

2.) Learn to aim the camera without looking through the view finder.

This for me was one of the hardest techniques to master, and I’m not really sure I’ve got it, but learning to point the camera towards a subject without looking through the viewfinder takes practice. I shoot from my chest and hip a lot, therefore I’ve practiced from these two points. Some times I like to get down low, but this is not always possible (as in this shot because the ground was soaked!), so I will stoop down and hold the camera close to the ground as this gives an interesting perspective.

3.) Learn to shoot from the hip….literally

After learning to aim the camera without looking through the viewfinder, another trick is to learn to position the camera on your body to help steady shots. I found that by positioning my camera on my hip, the shot seems to be more stable than holding it up to my eye. Camera shake seems to be more exaggerated if you hold the camera away from your body rather than close.

4.) Take advantage of your surroundings

Toting a tripod is not always possible, and when low light or long exposure come into play, you wish you had one. But with streets,  there are an abundance of items to use: tables, benches, chairs, posts, rails, window seals, rocks, stumps, or even the ground can help stable your shot. Also shooting from these heights can make an otherwise uninteresting shot interesting because of the perspective. If I’m out doing this sort of photography, I usually only take a body with one lens, an extra battery, and extra memory and I leave the rest of the gear at home. Sometimes, I may carry a mini tripod or a bean bag to help support the camera, but now always.

5.) Don’t Delete Anything

I found that some of the most interesting shots I’ve taken aren’t interesting until I look at them on my computer and can process them a little.  Some nasty looking shots can actually turn out to be some pretty interesting stuff during post processing. Nowadays with cheap memory, you can be less discretionary about what you shoot!

6.) Don’t expect to shoot anything in particular

Rather than imagining what a particular shot should look like imagine shots of things around you. Experiment with a couple different things if the subject is stationary, but also be ready to grab something on a whim too.

There they are. If you want some inspiration, check out my gallery, Street Photography.