I’m a big fan of doing all the necessary preparation work to capture my vision in a single exposure, with all the elements in place in the instant the shutter is open. But sometimes that just isn’t possible and I rely on some of the digital magic that allows me to combine multiple exposures into a single finished image.

There are three main reasons I’ll create a composite image:

• Subjects, particularly in a large group portrait, don’t all cooperate at the same time
• The brightness range in the image is greater than my camera’s sensor can accommodate
• The subject is too large, or the working space too small, to fit into one frame

The key to creating a composite digital image is planning ahead. It’s not something you can do successfully, and believably, without knowing where you’re going. I always use a tripod so as many elements as possible line up perfectly.

Unless I’m going to use High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques to fit a wide brightness range into a single frame I make sure my exposure is that same for each frame that I’ll be blending. That almost always means manual exposure and a constant aperture. I don’t touch the zoom on my lens and I keep my lighting the same.

Let’s examine each of these three variations on blending multiple exposures. Continue reading →