Week 8: Panoramic Landscape

February 23, 2016 – Other than using the panoramic feature on my iPhone when Apple first introduced it, I’ve never done a true panoramic shot using my DSLR, a tripod, and photoshop stitching. This week’s challenge has been a fantastic learning experience.


52 WEEK PHOTO CHALLENGE

 Week 8: Landscape/Panorama

Week8PanoMP

A great opportunity to explore panorama stitching and create a sweeping landscape.

It took several tries to figure out the right way to photograph each image for Photoshop stitching to work.

What I learned about shooting panoramas:

Some examples of my failures:

First, I tried laundry on the line, but soon figured out, the blowing quilt would not match up from photo to photo when stitching.

LaundryPanoramaTest

Next, en route to Winslow AZ, we stopped at Cadiz on Route 66. I got a partial pano, although the last two shots WOULD NOT STITCH. Later I learned I didn’t overlap enough for it to stitch. Argh. Without the most important shot, Brian and the key building seen below, the pano was bland.

CadizPano

pano

We arrived in Winslow, and I tried again. This town shot is cool, but something about the whole image is wonky.

WinslowPano

Inside our Motor Palace, yet another try, shooting the interior. This is the first time we’ve seen the walls without the drywall framing. So excited. Sadly, even though I finally got the pano to work, there’s so much construction junk, the shot looks cluttered. Moving on.

MotorPalace

Later, we went on an exploratory drive and found this terrific bridge over Chevelon Canyon. This is four shots. Not quite enough for a full panoramic.

Bridge

Wow. What a canyon. But seriously, it looks like I shot this with my wide angle lens, not stitch together five images.BridgeCanyonePanoThe road heading out there was pretty extraordinary too. This was my second favorite pano of the week, BUT… the horizon isn’t completely straight. It bugs me. Plus, I should have done a wider arc.

Road2

In the end, I chose the Motor Palace as my official subject. I first shot the photo below, but didn’t like the bowing power lines, so moved to the other side, and got my final image, the one in the header of this post.

MPPano

Of all the challenges so far, I learned the most from this one and that’s pretty doggoned exciting. Pass along any tips you might have. I’ll happily take them.

Until next week’s ARTISTIC SHADOWS….

Later gators!


LATER GATORS!

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