Big Mountain Panoramic image from Kananaskis

Big Mike · Jun 8, 2006

This was the view, right from our camp site last weekend. While the view was great, it was windy as heck.

I made this with 8 or 9 exposures...my very first attempt at stitching photos together. I may try to upload a bigger version if anyone wants to see it.

Antarctican · Jun 8, 2006

Wow, BigMike, that's an awesome view and an awesome image. Hard to believe it's your first time stitching shots together....Good Job, IMO.

danalec99 · Jun 8, 2006

TwiztidBlood · Jun 8, 2006

not bad for first stitch try

whardman · Jun 8, 2006

Very nice stitching. What program did you use / how did you stich it? When ever I try it never comes out anything like that.

Peanuts · Jun 8, 2006

Gorgeous! Looks like the view was good from your campground

Jeff Canes · Jun 8, 2006

That sweet Mike

Arch · Jun 8, 2006

Good job mike........ great scene :thumbup:

Alison · Jun 8, 2006

Awesome shot(s)! Great job stitching as well.

JOAT · Jun 9, 2006

Beautiful shot! love the colour and contrast.

LaFoto · Jun 9, 2006

That's impressive.
Not only the view you had - that alone is impressive enough!
But also your stitching job.
Stitching is yet a thing I must learn to do! (Along with so many other things that I want to be able to do but still can't do, like HDR or so.....)

Big Mike · Jun 9, 2006

Thank you all for the warm comments.

The more I look at it, the more I see some things that I want to fix...with the stitching & transitions between exposures. I guess that's the secret with stitching panos...spend plenty on time on it and keep at it, till it looks right.

What program did you use / how did you stich it?

I used Photoshop. Firstly, I used a tripod and took all the photos with the same exposure. I had the camera in portrait orientation (a tip I read). I tried to overlap each shot by about half. Back in Photoshop, I made a blank canvas that was really big and wide. Then I cut & paste all the images on to the new canvas. Then, one by one, I moved the images into place. I reduced the opacity of a layer and moved it over top of the image next to it...as best I could. The didn't line up as neatly as I thought they would. I guess the tripod has to be perfectly level. Once all the images were in place, I used layer masks to hide/blend the transitions. I used a very soft brush with low opacity. I saved this as the master file. Then I cropped away the uneven edges and saved this as my working copy. I played with it some more and then flattened the layers and saved another copy. With this copy, I made the regular tweaks; levels adjustment layer, Curves, Saturation etc. I use some more masks to get the contrast the way I wanted...and then saved web version for you to see. I hope that answers your question.