The Panoramic 3-Rs

[JimMcClain]

A few days ago I posted a picture of a road, a river and a railway converging (HERE) and mentioned I wanted to try to make my way to a better vantage point. What I thought was the best scene was on a 4-lane curve - the down hill side where traffic can get up to 70 or 80 miles an hour and the edge of the road is barely 2' wide. Well, it was a harrowing glide on my Segway this morning. The traffic was light, but the few vehicles that did pass me were mostly huge-ass trucks hauling freight or dirty, loose-bark logs. The particles of dirt and tiny pieces of bark hit me like buckshot during my 20 minutes of shooting.

Turns out, that spot was NOT the best vantage point after all. I mean, it was pretty and all, but it just didn't have the dramatic view I had envisioned. 'Course, my fear of being hit by one of those trucks hugging the fog line could have narrowed my mental acuity. But I did see an opportunity to try the new panoramic feature in Lightroom CC/6. I didn't take my level with me, so I was surprised at how well I was able to eyeball the tripod. I overlapped each of the 5 captures, which were shot in portrait mode.

Nikon D810, Tamron SP 24-70mm F2.8 Di VC USD at 24mm, f/16, 1/13-15-20-15-60s respectively, ISO 64, mounted on a Manfrotto 294 CF tripod and ReallyRightStuff BH-55 LR head.

I'm not sure how best to deal with the blotchy sky. I've heard that wide angle lenses don't blend well in panos of skies. The sun was very low in the sky (out of frame) on the left side of the picture and there was a blend of nice color on the left horizon, but the rest of the sky appeared to be a fairly consistent blue everywhere else, maybe a bit lighter closer to terra firma. I let the camera pick the shutter speed (see above), so that may have been the mistake and not the lens. If you have any ideas, please share them.

Jim

 

[vintagesnaps]

Sounds like an adventure! I think it turned out pretty cool. I don't see splotchy, maybe it's how it's showing up on here, but those do seem to be rather slow shutter speeds for a nice sunny day (of course the sun was getting low so I suppose it wasn't all that bright by then). I like this better than the earlier one, seems like it was worth the trouble.

 

[JimMcClain]

This may be one of those instances where having a spot meter would have helped. All the shots were taken at about 7am. Although the sunrise was about 5:35, there was still a lot of shade because the sun had not come out above some of the mountains nearby. I used matrix metering, bracketed and used the exposure that that came just before the highlights blew out, which was the -1.00 eV frame of each set. Using ISO 64 and f/16 called for longer than average shutter speeds too.

Thanks for your comments. Yes, it was worth the trouble - kind of a rush being in a dangerous situation like that.

Jim