I teach my students that before worrying about the technical issues of capturing a photo, they should first envision the “look” of the photo they’d like to capture – things like the composition, the lighting, and where the viewers eyes should be drawn to. Once the shot is envisioned, the camera angle, lens selection, exposure settings and flash setup (if any) will logically follow.
But sometimes there are circumstances when the envisioned shot is impossible to capture in just one photo – such was the case in the photo below. I envisioned capturing the Aspen trees covered with gold leaves against the background of an adjacent mountain. Everything fell into place except for one thing – the Aspen trees at that location were practically bare of leaves!
Challenge accepted – I decided to combine two different photos. Using Photoshop I selected a photo of the Aspens covered with leaves and combined it with a photo of the mountain. Creating composite photos can be tricky because the light in both photos has to be coming from the same direction. The resultant photo captures the 3 things I envisioned, a star like sunburst, golden leaves on Aspen trees, and a mountain in the background. Not perfect by any means, but close to what I’d hoped for.
