Capturing Unique Shots in Drayton Cellar

Historic Drayton Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, has some dramatic rooms designed for photography. In this video, professional shooter Tony Sweet photographs the building’s shadowy cellar stairs in HDR. He shoots three static exposures in available light to capture the complete dynamic range for merging into a single file in editing.

With a 14mm lens, Tony also photographs the basement door, using five different, full-stop exposures to adjust for exterior sunlight and interior shadows. The sky is gray, the door white, and the ceiling pitch black. The HDR technique solves the lighting contrast problem, and the finished image captures the full tonal range.

See all of the videos in our Visual Artistry Course:

Visual Artistry – Course Preview
Using Long Exposure to Photograph Water
HDR Photography: Capturing a Water Scene
Close-Up Photography: Capturing the Details of Shells
Photographing Scenery with Multiple Exposures
Black and White Conversion
Capturing the Beauty of Downtown Charleston
Infrared Photography: Tips on Shooting and Editing
How to Mirror an Image Using Photoshop
How to Photomerge to Create a Panoramic Image
Creating a Digital Sandwich
This video: Capturing Unique Shots in Drayton Cellar
Capturing HDR Images at Drayton
Capturing and Editing Infrared Images
Mirroring Images at Magnolia Garden
Photographing Charleston Gallery
Stitching and Merging Photos from Drayton Hall
Assembling a Digital Sandwich at Magnolia Garden
Photographing Trees with Multiple Exposure