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I really wanted to take a photo of this tack room on Mundowdna Station near Maree in Outback South Australia. It was a collection of horse and camel saddles and the saddlebags the old cameleers used when camels where one of the main modes of transporting anything around Outback country.

The trouble was the lighting. Both dark and well light areas. I tried flash in all sorts of ways and it looked terrible. Bracketing exposures is something I’ve used often and after the unsatisfactory results with the flash I figured I could make it work here. In post I played with each photo separately trying to balance the highlights and shadows.

Eventually there’s one that comes close. Photoshop’s Layers are far superior for fine adjustments and this was the result. In the bracketing process I would have a full stop difference between each shot. I would vary the base exposure as well and also take a reading with an exposure meter that I keep in my bag. The process is one of a number of techniques I cover in my workshops.