I had recently used all of my lenses, at least of the ones that I use on a relatively regular basis, even my wide angle lens although I am not sure that I will reveal that banal photo.
What I hadn't done was shoot an actual panorama. Now, I do frequently crop into a panoramic aspect ratio — basically horizontally wide and narrow vertically — but I seldom shoot a panorama by moving the camera while photographing a scene.
It's so easy with a phone that I was tempted to use it instead of the big beast. With a phone., you just sweep from one side to the other, and the phone does the work on the spot. With my DSLR, however, I must click the shutter, move the camera slightly, and click again. Usually, for me, this involves 3 or 4 separate photos. But that's what I chose to do on that occasion because I am trying to not resort to the phone too much these days as I feel that I overused it last year.
After taking the various shots, you get your software to piece them together into one image. I use Lightroom, but Photoshop and other programs can do the job. In the distant past, software could not do this, so once or twice, I managed to do it by hand. It was a slow and finicky process and not as good a result as the software does now does within seconds.
These were my two panos from Tuesday. I tried another but didn't like it. They are both taken at the edge of Riverside Park near the boat launch. As you can plainly see, I converted them both to b&w, but that didn't need much of a conversion on that gray day.
 |
| A 3 photo merge with some foreground snow cropped away |
 |
| A 4 photo merge with much foreground snow cropped out. |
They are very different that this regular not-a-pano photo from January 01, where there is a significant tonal range from black to white. You saw the colour version a week or so ago.
I like both styles, for each fits the day and scene, but right now, I am particularly taken with the gray vibe of the first two.
I have never used the big beast or lightroom to do a pano. It has always seemed like so much work compared to the phone and I have no hangups about using my phone camera.
ReplyDeleteNicely done!
ReplyDeleteI think I will just stick to my phone for panoramics, that is a lot of work to go through. Your photos are beautiful though!
ReplyDeleteI prefer color rather than black and white. But, with snow and bare trees, what can anyone expect?
ReplyDeleteAs a professional photographer, you should keep your hand in for those different skill sets, I'd imagine. But since I don't do professional photos, I'm happy with the iPhone. Still haven't explored half of the options in it's camera, and I've had it 5 years.
ReplyDeleteYour first one sings, really. I confess to still making panos by hand if I am not shooting deliberately to crop. My hand edits are not, of course, as good as the software ones, but I love doing it. For me, three shots, hopefully in line, print all three and look for the match. If there is a shoreline, hand stitching is much easier.
ReplyDeleteI am still learning what my iPhone is capable of doing. I get annoyed with it setting colour values for me, though. There has to be a way! Back to the book.
There is such beauty in the stark lines of the first two.
ReplyDeleteSnow scenes are just psychedelic
ReplyDeleteI like them all but especially the 2nd one.
ReplyDeleteThe first two are my favourites too.
ReplyDeleteOoooh these are all great! Love the minimalism and monochrome look. Of the three, I think my favorite is the first because I like that empty bench so much. xoxo
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful.
ReplyDelete