First Panorama C&C

[John27]

Hey all!

Okay so we just got our first DSLR (T1i kit) and spent all day yesterday snapping shots at a local state park. I took three shots here at the river and stitched them in PS, and then did some minor tweaking to cure some blown highlights in the sky, other than that it's as-shot.

Body: Canon T1i
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 (Kit Lens)
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 18mm
Shot: Shutter Priority, 1/125 (f/14)

Anything anyone would have done different? Thanks!

Shot it hand-held by the way, I had a tripod set up but I wasn't using it, so I just cropped the final image to make it nice and flat. Is there an advantage to using a tripod in a shot like this?

 

[ann]

not bad for handheld and your first attempt. You might want to try this same shot in a few weeks when the colors start to turn as i believe it will be more interesting .

tripods can always help with these things as it is very easy to find oneself's tilting a bit, which means when you crop for straighting you'll keep getting less and less viewable space.

 

[John27]

Thanks Ann!

Oh I definitely will, I imagine this will be gorgeous when the colors turn!

-John

 

[John27]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to add detail to the trees? They seem washed out, any thoughts?

 

[ann]

you can increase the contrast a bit, or play a bit with levels and see if that helps. For my taste it looks a bit overexposed, but monitors vary so that decision should be made on your monitor; however, the lack of detail in the branches at the edge have little detail which leads to underexposures. perhaps the contrast range was a bit too much for your sensor, and so you need to decide which way to go,

 

[tirediron]

If you don't already have one, and like to shoot this sort of scene, consider purchasing a circular polarizing filter (CPOL). This will increase saturation and contrast in a more natural looking way than post-processing will. Good job.

 

[John27]

If you don't already have one, and like to shoot this sort of scene, consider purchasing a circular polarizing filter (CPOL). This will increase saturation and contrast in a more natural looking way than post-processing will. Good job.

Thanks! I will definitely look into a CPOL. Also, someone mentioned monitors, all post processing is done on my "main" rig, with a high end LCD monitor that is constantly calibrated, and is attached via HDMI to an ATi Radeon HD5870 which has a bunch of shtuff carried over from the FireGL line that keeps things sharp and accurate (the FireGL line is intended for high end pro photo editing, etc.). BUT that said, it still looks a bit over exposed and washed out on that monitor too, but even MORE so on my laptop, but if I reduce the exposure I start losing detail big time in the trees (shadows swallow it up). I think what I need is a 25 foot tall speedlight to illuminate under the trees.

 

[LCARSx32]

Or shoot later in the day. Especially right before sunset. The sky won't be so bright, so you can expose the trees and the sky together instead of one or the other.

But a 25 foot speedlight might do it.

 

[ann]

color calibration is always so much fun.