Blah panorama...

[StL Scapes]

Heres a panorama I took whilst on vacation of the new year. Having some problems getting all of the exposure right. During sunset, the left side is underexposed, where and under the sun overexposed, as well as the coloring being "blah". Shooting all in RAW, Nikon D70. Going back to the same place again over the 07-08 new year, maybe next time I can perfect it, or maybe I can fix this one up in PS?

P.S. First post.

 

[just x joey]

thats a cool shot, u can lighten up the dark areas in photoshop, just mess around a little.

 

[mat wildlife]

Really nice shot - colour and panorama. I'd probably tries to under expose to eliminate the blown area and lightened the dark in PS. Also try cropping slightly on left to get rid of railing.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

First off, welcome to the site. a fair bit of warning, posting in the critique section means you are looking for HONEST feedback, which isn't always what you want to hear.

What did you use to stitch the pictures together? there are quite a few spots where you can clearly see the merged picture. Are you using a tripod? Overlapping your shots some?

Also, no reason to wait till next year to perfect the panoramic, just step outside (or stay inside) and take the shots.

 

[StL Scapes]

Thanks for the responses. I guess ill have to break out the humongous PS learning book I bought years ago to try and teach myself something. I very rarely do any post processing.

Im also open to the criticism, as long as its not blatent flaming. Any info that helps me to learn more and become a better photographer is always welcome.

As far as the picture goes, I did use a tripod, and the program I used to stitch them together was Arcsoft Panorama Maker. I tried to overlap them 25-50% as suggested by the program itself, as well as shooting in manual mode with a preset WB.

I thought there was a way PS could do it too, but I havent dug around in there.

 

[dc502]

There is a way for photoshop to do it. I have never done this before but in Adobe Help Center (its a program that should be installed when you install CS2) search for "photomerge". Adobe will tell you how to do it.

I am using a mac so I don't know if its the same for a pc it probably is though. but photomerge is under file > automate > photomerge.

its as easy as that.

its a cool photo though. i am very new to photography but did you try taking different exposures. isn't the sun always going to be washed out in photo's?

 

[StL Scapes]

I played around with the iso a little. Ive got two more of the same pan I took, ill post those too.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

how sturdy is that tripod? only reason I ask is because I can see a few of the edges where the pictures are supposed to merge a little more flawlessly than it looks like they did. It's a very cool picture though, I have been wanting to do a panoramic for a while.

 

[StL Scapes]

Not sure on the quality of the tripod. Its made by sony, and has a level. I bought it because I used to be on this sony camera kick where they were the only digicams I bought, and it has controls on the handle to use almost all the ones I bought, especially my camcorder.

Anyway, here are the other panoramas, same view etc. Now that I look at them, most of them look better than the original I posted, lol.

Best colors:

Real Wide

Okay

Overexposed

 

[chroix]

Looks really fake.. prob because of distortion froma wide angle. Also the first is obviously way overexposed/under in areas as you were shooting into the sun. I'd either try to blobk the sun with clouds as you did with better results or time it so the sun is not an issue.

 

[StL Scapes]

Shooting around the sun did pose a problem, as most of the time even if it was behind a cloud the reflections on the water were still horrible.

 

[JIP]

I think you needed to get a little lower the land is a more interesting subject than the sky.

 

[Peacemaker636]

Well, since you have a tripod, you could try to make several HDR's, and then stitch those together. That would be interesting (granted, it'd take a lot of work). Then, you wouldn't have under or overexposure.

 

[cherrymoose]

The balcony railings on both sides are really bothering me. The subject is nice, but I can't handle the sides of the photo. If I were you I'd definitely crop it.