To create these images, I arranged flowers on a lightbox that was proportionally much wider than it was tall. Next, I shot straight down with a macro lens, bracketing for an HDR effect. I discarded the dark exposures, so my brackets essentially went from “correct” exposure to way overexposed (almost white).

I shot the arrangements in segments, moving my camera parallel to the arrangement on the lightbox. Here’s the full exposure data for each segment: 50mm macro lens, six exposures at shutter speeds ranging from 3/10 sec. to 15 seconds at f/11 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

In post-production, I first combined each segment into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, using hand layer painting in Photoshop to create a transparent effect as I explain in Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis on pages 182-185.

Next, I composited the HDR segments together in Photoshop. This took a measure of warping and related transformations to get the alignment exacttly right, even though I had tried my best to shoot the segments carefully so they could be easily aligned.

In other words, this process created an unusual kind of HDR panorama—HDR because the dynamic range has been extended, and panorma because each image is far wider than it is high.

By the way, if you click each of the HDR panos shown in this story you’ll see a larger version of each floral panorama. Here’s an earlier blog story I wrote about Making an HDR Floral Panorama.

I also have provided more information about how I made these images in my forthcoming Creating HDR Photos on pages 82-85. I even included a setup shot!

Check out my Floral Tapestry set on Flickr for more of the images that I’ve been making in the past year that include various kinds of photographic techniques, scanned papers and fabrics, and post-production work. Most of these images are not panoramic, but I think you’ll agree that the effects are quite appealing and unusual.