Finding the time to shoot a panorama

[gredawarha]

Hello all

Have been struggling to find the time to get out and take some photos but after watching a couple of Gavin Hoey videos on Youtube I was keen to try a panorama shot. With work and looking after an 18 month old son I find it hard but managed to nip down to a nearby lake in Greatham Hampshire and spend five minutes shooting. Below is the outcome, stiched together and processed in Adobe CS6. Be nice to know what people think of the image and any tips would be great.

[IMG][/IMG]

Many thanks guys

[bambleweeney]

It's nicely stitched together that's for sure, how many shots in this one ? As it stands the composition is quite nice and that foreground semi circle leads the eye round the image really well. Also the light on that little hill is splendid. The lower third looks a bit too saturated to me though and thus a little unnatural as the colour doesn't match that of the sky. Did you add something here, a grad or something similiar because the banks look a little dark as well ? If this is the result of a grad you could maybe mask the banks out of it to lift them a little and try to replicate the same colour but a little brighter in the sky - might work, and might make that hilll an even more prominent focal point.
Nice shot though, well balanced lots of interest in the frame though I might be tempted to maybe trim a little off the left to enhance the symmetry between the left and right banks.
Looking closely I can see a lot of interesting detail on the horizon, that might be worth investigating for your next outing.

[gredawarha]

It's nicely stitched together that's for sure, how many shots in this one ? As it stands the composition is quite nice and that foreground semi circle leads the eye round the image really well. Also the light on that little hill is splendid. The lower third looks a bit too saturated to me though and thus a little unnatural as the colour doesn't match that of the sky. Did you add something here, a grad or something similiar because the banks look a little dark as well ? If this is the result of a grad you could maybe mask the banks out of it to lift them a little and try to replicate the same colour but a little brighter in the sky - might work, and might make that hilll an even more prominent focal point.
Nice shot though, well balanced lots of interest in the frame though I might be tempted to maybe trim a little off the left to enhance the symmetry between the left and right banks.
Looking closely I can see a lot of interesting detail on the horizon, that might be worth investigating for your next outing.

Hi Paul

Thanks for your comments.

I think the image is composed of 6 or 7 images but I am at work at the moment so will check my camera out when I get home.

I did play around with the saturation and contrast to try and make the image "stand out". I'm still learning post processing and what I like.

I found that the sky appeared to my eyes to be too bright but I did not want to darken the whole image as I was happy with the rest. I therefore used a graduated filter pulled down from the top of the image to the horizon to darken the sky a little.

Looking at it again I totaly agree on cropping the left bank to produce better symetry. Also the left bank was in the shade (there was a huge row of tree behind me and the sun beoynd that) so cropping might also help in that respect.


Not sure if I will be able to travel to the other side of the lake but will certainly be going there again. The reason it might be difficult is the land is used by the Ministry Of Defence so certain areas are off limits but a lot is accesible, just need to take heed of the red flags which mean no access due to live fire!