first attempt at a panoramic

John_05 · Mar 10, 2006

i hadnt been feling too "inspired" lately until i met a neighbor of ours. he is 82 and was a photographer for about 60 years. he has probably forgotten more about photography then i could ever learn. ive been sitting with him for the last couple weeks just listening to the different stories and trying to learn a little.

anyways, right now i dont have time to post some of the pictures ive taken, except for a panoramic i did. its my first time trying this, so let me know what you think. i couldnt post a larger version (the original is 8510x1900 and over 20MB) because i didnt want everyone to have to scroll the screen too far.

this is 8 pictures i stitched together with Photoshop CS2, and then touched up in PaintShop Pro X.

hopefully in the next day or 2 i will have time to post some of the other pics i have taken since meeting my new friend and learning a little more then i knew before.
thanks for looking, and for any comments/critique.

bowronfam3 · Mar 10, 2006

I LOVE the way the sky looks in the panoramic...but out of curiosity, why shoot this parking lot? I mean, I see what you were trying to do with the panoramic and everything, but parking lots are just kind of...well...boring.

Please don't take offense, but I think you did a very good job with the panoramic technique, I would just love to see it used on a subject more interesting.

AprilRamone · Mar 10, 2006

bowronfam3 said:
I LOVE the way the sky looks in the panoramic...but out of curiosity, why shoot this parking lot? I mean, I see what you were trying to do with the panoramic and everything, but parking lots are just kind of...well...boring. Please don't take offense, but I think you did a very good job with the panoramic technique, I would just love to see it used on a subject more interesting.

At first, I agreed with you Bowron, but then I got to thinking about how it's sort of an interesting idea in and of itself to just capture "boring" places that we see everyday. John, perhaps this image would seem more interesting if it had a title that pertained to why you felt a parking lot would be a good subject to photograph. In any case, the sky really does look beautiful! Oh, and one more thing I was thinking about when I looked at this, is that it makes you wonder if any of those people in that crowded parking lot took the time to really see and take in that beautiful sky or if they were all too busy to even notice.

Alpha · Mar 10, 2006

A title would do little to inject meaning into a so-called "boring" or ordinary shot. I think it's very cool. It's a panorama of a parking lot with a very beautiful sky. Why not just leave it at that?

John_05 · Mar 11, 2006

thanks for the comments everyone. :thumbup:

when i posted, i was in a hurry and didnt have time to go into detail as to why i decided to make the panoramic.

i was talking with my friend and mentioned something someone had said in a thread i posted of the first pics i took with my pentax. i forget who said it, but they said it looked like i wasnt afraid to shoot anything and might get shots someone else wouldnt. my friend suggested that maybe a good way to find some inspiration would be to take my camera with me when i went anywhere and just take pictures of whatever. on the day i took the pics in the panoramic, i was remembering the talk we had and i noticed that everyone going to or from the store seemed to only be paying attention to what they were doing, and not to the beautiful day we had. it was about 50 degrees out, and for NY in march, thats not too bad. we have had a mild winter this year, but i was still surprised that more people werent noticing the day, or stopping to just look at the sky. when i was thinking about what pictures i wanted to take, i heard someone behind me complaining about how "crappy the weather has been". when they noticed i was taking pictures, they asked me why. i told them i was just taking pictures for practice and one of them commented "why would you want to take pictures today? they said if the weather was better they could understand why i would want to take pictures, but they didnt see the sense in taking pictures that day. when i pointed out the sky to them and said i thought it was beautiful and would be a nice reminder of just how mild the winter was this year, and what a nice day it was for being march, they just scoffed and said "it isnt that nice. when summer is here then i will agree its a nice day". rather then argue or voice my opinions, i just said "well i cant wait for summer either, but i still think its a nice day today". they just walked to their car and left and i doubt they looked at the sky again or even gave what i said a second thought. thats when i decided that instead of just taking a series of pictures and keeping them seperate, i would try to make my first panoramic with them.

the pictures i took didnt come out too good and needed a lot of editing to look ok, and then i had to shrink them to help hide some of the faults i found with them. even though the pictures werent as nice as i would have liked them to be, i was still pleased that i had something to remind me of that day, and also something i could try something new with. the panoramic still isnt very good when i look at it full size, but i can work with it more to fix alot of the errors i noticed since i posted that one here. if nothing else, it has helped me to get a little more inspiration to shoot more pictures, and to practice things i havent tried before. with things being as hectic as they have been for me the last few weeks, its nice to have something, even though it is far from "perfect", to remind me that getting depressed over little things and letting them affect what i do isnt doing me any good. it helps me to realize that no matter how bad things seem, if you just work harder with what you have, and not just give up, you can always find a way to make things better.

as for being offended by someone else thinking that shooting a parking lot is "boring", im not. everyone has their opinion, and i appreciate all the opinions i get here. to be honest, a parking lot itself is a little boring to me in most circumstances, but i dont have a car to get out to different places, so i shoot what i can where ever i am. some of the worst pics i have taken are from the parking lot at the wal-mart here, but they helped to teach me that trying diferent things with the cameras i have is a good thing to do, and i have learned a lot since then. on the way home that night, i decided to go back out to try to get more shots of the storm i tried to capture from the parking lot when i got home but i decided to try to use manual settings instead of the auto mode. i wound up taking about 120 pictures trying to get 1 good shot of lightning. i wound up with only one picture with 2 tiny streaks of lightning in them, but for me the sense of accomplishment in getting something captured i never got before in the numerous attempts i made before made that one picture worth all the frustration it took to get just that one picture. i guess what im trying to say is that if what i shoot is boring to most people, and even myself sometimes, if i learn from it then its all worth it.

now that i once again have typed about 10 times what i intended to, ill stop here. thanks again to everyone for their comments and opinions. they all are very much appreciated. :thumbup:

Mohain · Mar 11, 2006

Hi Jon_05.

I actually think this is pretty cool. :thumbup:

It's not the normal sort of pano you usually see, but to see such an awsome sky over a 'normal' scene says something to me. You obviously have a great eye for a shot, as this picture says. I'd like to see a bigger vesion tho

One small thing, why use C2s for stitching (which isn't as good as almost all other stitching progs) and then use PSP for for retouching (which isn't as good as CS2)?

Cheers,

Mohain

John_05 · Mar 11, 2006

Mohain said:
Hi Jon_05.

I actually think this is pretty cool. :thumbup:

It's not the normal sort of pano you usually see, but to see such an awsome sky over a 'normal' scene says something to me. You obviously have a great eye for a shot, as this picture says. I'd like to see a bigger vesion tho

One small thing, why use C2s for stitching (which isn't as good as almost all other stitching progs) and then use PSP for for retouching (which isn't as good as CS2)?

Cheers,

Mohain

first, thanks for the comments.

as for using photoshop for stitching, that is all i have that had an automated process to do that, so i figured i would try it. as for the results i got form it, i dont like it at all. there are a lot of errors, so i will be re-doing the panoramic "by hand" to see what i can do myself.
as for using paintshop pro to touch them up, thats the first program i learned to use, so i am much more familiar with it. i can get the same results with paintshop pro as i can with photoshop, but its easier for me to use because i know it better.

im not sure if photoshop is any better then paintshop pro for what i use it for. im sure if i ever get a DSLR, i will probably have to use photoshop to work on the RAW files, but for now i get acceptable results out of my pictures with paintshop pro. i do know a couple people that claim they can get the same results from paintshop pro as they can with photoshop and i have seen some of their work which was incredible, so i guess i will have to just learn photoshop more and compare them myself.

as for a larger version, i need to totally redo the panoramic myself, or find a decent program that will assist with it. do you know of any that are free, or have a free trial that doesnt restrict saving the final picture without any limitations or logos being put all over the final image?

thanks again for the comments!

Mohain · Mar 11, 2006

Try Autostitch if your images have loads of overlap, it has a great free demo. Panorama Factory is better but costs. And if you have CS2, you should really try to learn to use it. There are loads of free (web based) tutorials out there. It has a lot more to offer than PSP.

Cheers,

Mohain

John_05 · Mar 11, 2006

thanks for the advice. i tried autostitch, and it worked better then CS2 did. i have a friend that has panorama factory, so im sending him the originals so he can see what that comes up with. i will post the results from both soon.
thanks again Mohain. i appreciate the help.

**EDIT**
here is the panoramic i did with autostitch. i didnt use all of the pictures i used in the first one and i didnt edit the errors, but it will be easier to fix this them the one i did with CS2.