Single digit temperatures and a losing battle with the sun left me with inside objects for my project picture.  I’ve discovered when shooting inside in low light I need to always use the tripod to ensure a sharp image.  I’m just not very steady at slow shutter speeds.  I also wanted to try more bracketed shots with the thought of combining them using Photoshop Elements – Photmerge Exposure option.

I found this fragrance diffuser on one of the end tables and it looked like it would catch the light nicely while providing a nice contrast to the wood grained top.  The automatic bracketing does work on my camera if you need longer exposure but I was able to get around this issue by setting the exposures manually.  Luckily for me I didn’t move the camera in between shots.

Once I had the three exposures merges in Elements I did a small adjustment to the levels and adjusted the contrast.  The picture didn’t turn out that bad and discovered another nice background to photograph objects against.  After reviewing the in camera pictures of this object I tried another bracketed shot of a candle topper with the candle lit to provide some contrasting light.

Looking at this image today I might have done a different crop to better highlight the detail in the top but overall this image works for me too.  This opens up more possibilities for exploration and with winter starting to set in here in Upstate NY, I’m going to need a lot more indoor subjects!