Another shot (and probably the last) from my trip to Wreck Beach last week. This is a 5 photo panorama taken just after the sun passed below the mountains in the distance.
For this shot I used a 3-stop graduated ND filter and a circular polariser. The resolution of the full size image is 48 megapixels.
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
If you're interested in any...
Cor...your shots just never fail to mesmerize me and seeing them has become something I look forward to every day. I find the hardest thing to pick one favourite out of them. This one is definitely one of them.
To start with, I load the RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw (this provides the same function as the Develop module in Lightroom). Here I'll make sure that all the photos have the same white balance (shooting RAW means that the white balance can be adjusted in post-processing, so I rarely bother setting a custom white balance in camera, and leave it on AWB -- however, this means that the value the camera chose is usually slightly different for each shot, so I need to correct that).
I'll also apply lens corrections to remove vignetting, as well as applying noise reduction and sharpening as appropriate. At this point I don't do any actions to adjust how the photo looks (e.g. contrast, highlights/shadows, etc), I only correct deficiencies that have been introduced by the camera or lens. I then export these photos as 16-bit TIFFs (although using JPEG is a lot quicker without only minimal disadvantage).
I then load these output files into the stitching software -- I typically use Hugin, a free and powerful stitcher, but for a simple single row of images like this, just about any panoramic stitching software should be fine. (Hugin really comes into its own when you have a grid of images, both horizontally and vertically).
After doing any adjustments in the stitching software to level the image if necessary (or on more complex panoramas, choose appropriate projections and so on), I'll then stitch the panorama, again outputting to a 16-bit TIFF file (although again you could use a JPEG for simplicity)
Once I have the stitched 16-bit TIFF I'll then load it back into Adobe Camera Raw, and at that point I'll do any processing necessary on the image as a whole (contrast, highlights/shadows, clarity, etc.).
Finally I'll load the image from Adobe Camera Raw into Photoshop to perform any localised adjustments or corrections necessary. In the case of this image, even though the stitching went together easily, because the waves are moving between shots, there were still very obvious seams showing the joins, because in one photo a wave would have been in one position, and in the next it would have been offset. Some careful application of the clone tool allowed me to conceal these joins at least from casual observation.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions!
Beautiful!! I actually was on a webpage that sells photos, and they showed samples, and I thought that one looked like your style photograph and as I scrolled down, I saw your name!! When you can have someone pick out your work without seeing your name, you know you have a talent all of your own!!! Congratulations!!!
How do you stitch your shots together? (I guess the question really is, what program(s) do you use?)
To start with, I load the RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw (this provides the same function as the Develop module in Lightroom). Here I'll make sure that all the photos have the same white balance (shooting RAW means that the white balance can be adjusted in post-processing, so I rarely bother setting a custom white balance in camera, and leave it on AWB -- however, this means that the value the camera chose is usually slightly different for each shot, so I need to correct that).
I'll also apply lens corrections to remove vignetting, as well as applying noise reduction and sharpening as appropriate. At this point I don't do any actions to adjust how the photo looks (e.g. contrast, highlights/shadows, etc), I only correct deficiencies that have been introduced by the camera or lens. I then export these photos as 16-bit TIFFs (although using JPEG is a lot quicker without only minimal disadvantage).
I then load these output files into the stitching software -- I typically use Hugin, a free and powerful stitcher, but for a simple single row of images like this, just about any panoramic stitching software should be fine. (Hugin really comes into its own when you have a grid of images, both horizontally and vertically).
After doing any adjustments in the stitching software to level the image if necessary (or on more complex panoramas, choose appropriate projections and so on), I'll then stitch the panorama, again outputting to a 16-bit TIFF file (although again you could use a JPEG for simplicity)
Once I have the stitched 16-bit TIFF I'll then load it back into Adobe Camera Raw, and at that point I'll do any processing necessary on the image as a whole (contrast, highlights/shadows, clarity, etc.).
Finally I'll load the image from Adobe Camera Raw into Photoshop to perform any localised adjustments or corrections necessary. In the case of this image, even though the stitching went together easily, because the waves are moving between shots, there were still very obvious seams showing the joins, because in one photo a wave would have been in one position, and in the next it would have been offset. Some careful application of the clone tool allowed me to conceal these joins at least from casual observation.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions!