To create the perfectly exposed photograph across the whole scene we can use a graduated filter balancing the exposure between the ground and sky, an alternative way to do this is to use bracketing were you set your camera to take 3 photographs, one under exposed, one over exposed and one correctly exposed for a mid tone in the scene.
Below are listed the steps to follow to achieve this, set your image file capture type to RAW + jpeg combined, below I am using the *.jpeg image for our adjustments.
1. Once on scene take a meter reading from a mid tone area in the scene, ( a third of the way into a scene or a fore ground object ).
2. Set up your camera's exposure bracketing to -1 ,0 ,+1.
3. Compose the scene in your view finder and take your 3 photographs.
4. Check photographs and histograms on the view finder, one should be under exposed, one correct exposure and one over exposed.
5. Later, open up in photoshop and follow these steps ,
1. Go to file - new - photomerge panoramic.
2. Browse and select your 3 photographs *.jpeg, select reposition only on the left hand side - ok.
3. Photoshop will now merge the 3 exposures into one balanced exposured image.
4. The three photographs will appear in the layers palette, these can be moved into different positions by clicking and dragging into the required position.
5. You can now carry out adjustments on any of the three images, i.e. levels, brightness and contrast, etc.
6. When you are happy with the final image go to layer and merge or merge down, combining all 3 images into one.
7. Save image either as a *.psd or *.pdd if you wish to make changes later or a *.jpeg if you want print the final image.