Panorama of Cincinnati - 1

Okay... so you have a nice city-scape and you want a panorama. So you shoots some consecutive shots planning to later stitch them in PS. Well, this looks nice... But, my first complaint is the lack of a level horizon. This is very difficult to get perfect especially for a Pano and PC lenses, but it really makes my head tilt. Notice how much of a change a simple rotation in PS will do for you! Secondly, the bridge leads "off page" nicely, but there is nothing to balance it on the left, just feels akward. The above image also appears slightly overexposed (burnt out building).

 

If you plan to stitch, I have a couple of suggestions. Plan out your image. Set the size to what ever you plan on the end result being, then place your first image (leftmost or rightmost) and then next in line, cut to half oppacity and line it up as much as you can (to do this you need to do some overlapping in the shooting before hand), then continue this, returning each image to full opacity once it is lined up. If you need to cover up misalignments, in PS 7.0 you have the "repair" tool that works quite nicely. If you need a finer tool, use the "stamp" tool in a a very small brush size for accurate matching.

 

Best of luck and well, you got digital so shoot shoot shoot!

 

Enjoy!

John, I fixed the horizon, although it still looks a little tilted. There are 2 reference points. 1. The horizon of the water 2. The horizon of the river bank. They appear to be 2 different angles.

 

As far as burning out the building. I took a lot of these types of shots and I had to expose for the entire picture, which was a little too long for that one building. I have some others that were taken with a shorter exposure, but the rest of the picture was underexposed. Maybe I can fix that in PS.

 

I dont have PS 7, only elements. So, I dont think I have the repair tool. There may be some other software that will enhance the panoramic ability. I cant justify spending 600-700 on PS 7.

 

Thanks for the comments and best of luck.

AJM

very clear and crisp, awsome use of the reflection

Thank you Justin, I am using a 10D with a Sigma EX wide angle and the combo really produces some sweet results. I just picked up my new Canon 28-135 USM and am looking forward to getting back downtown to put it to good use.

 

 

 

AJM

 

 

This is probably my favorite in your Cincinnati folder.I think the exposure is perfect, but yeah that one building and what we can see of his little brother are a little hot. You said you had to expose for the whole scene so I am guessing your camera was in stitch mode and the first shot sets the exposure, is that right? If it is then one trick you can try is after you are done taking all the shots for your stitch, take your camera out of the stitch mode and pan back around and take another shot of the hot building with a correct exposure (make sure the focus does not change). Then in PS you can extract the correctly exposed building and replace this one. Some people would argue against doing that but what the hell, it's digital and stitched already so the purists would complain from the start. Have you gone down lately, the river is really getting high. I don't know if that would help or hurt these shots.

Steve,

I have gone back now since the river is sooo high. I have posted one pano from that excursion in my folder and look forward to getting a couple more in.

To answer your question (or comment) about my method of stitching: I don't use in camera stitching (I dont think it can even do that), I use PS photostitch. So, I technically could re-shoot this and bring down the exposure in another shot and replace the overexposed section. Or I could just adjust the exposure in PS.

Thanks for your review. AJM

Interested in any comments or critisism. This was stitched using a

series of photos. 10d on a tripod panning a series of shots. I do

realize the size may seem excessive, but I feel it is neccesary for

greater detail. Thanks, AJM