A digital camera captures a sequence of frames such that captured frames of the sequence alternate between sets of frames, in which each frame in the set has a different exposure setting. Each set of frames includes a nominal exposure frame. For each set of frames of the sequence that is captured after the reference set of frames has been captured, a determination is made as to whether or not the captured set of frames should be saved, based, at least in part, on overlap. For each of the saved sets of frames, the frames in the set are aligned with each other, and then image mixing of the frames in the set of frames is performed to generate a high dynamic range image. A panoramic, high dynamic range image is generated from each of the high dynamic range images.