Grand Tetons!

[Noel Carboni]

A nearly 180 degree pano of the Grand Tetons over Jackson Lake from Colter Bay Village.

This is ridiculously small here... Click on the image to wander around in a nice high resolution version.

http://ccarboni.home.att.net/Grand_Tetons_Pano_800.jpg (http://forum.ourdarkskies.com/gallery_images/1177905560/gallery_131_14_661352.jpg)

Have I got the contrasts deep enough in this image? The nearby trees at the ends are nice and dark, but I'm concerned that the mountains might still feel a bit too hazy. Also, do you think I've gone on too far at the right end?

Thanks for looking. :)

-Noel

[Robert Amoruso]

Hi Noel,

Impressive work on this grand pano. I am distracted by the darkness of the right side. It does not work as a balance for the BG. I think here I would have walked right and gotten the trees and FG shore on the right out of the image if possible or see if something balanced better with the FG on the right to frame the Tetons.

THough you don't need a lot of blue sky here, I find it just a touch to tight for me taste given the large FG area of the lake.

Detail and exposure are right one.

[Noel Carboni]

I see what you're saying. I could crop it just short of the silhouetted leaves on the right. Any more than that and the viewer might wonder what mountains were cut off.

-Noel

[Robert Amoruso]

Agree Noel. That's were I would crop as well.

[Brian Wong]

Hi Noel!

You have an impressive panorama, that I bet looks great on the wall!

In viewing your larger version, I offer a couple of possible suggestions for improvement. On the far right shoreline, you can try improving the stitching/blending merge with some cloning or QM.

There are quite a few dust bunnies in the sky. I find it helpful to eliminate the dust spots first in the individual panels before stitching. It seems to offer a better blend to the sky (where very subtle dark/light changes can be easily seen).

Finally, I find water/ripples to be the most challenging to stitch seamlessly. You did very well, but a few seams are visible. Sometimes cloning works after the fact. During capture, I have tired timing the wavelets, capturing frames very quickly, and sometimes a larger overlap may be helpful. Also, depending on the direction of the action, panning left to right ... or right to left can sometimes assist in better aligned panels.

I also agree with Robert in maybe a touch more sky. Overall, it is a very grand panorama!

[Robert Amoruso]

Brian,

I was wondering how you saw all these small details - i figured I must be going blind. I had clicked on Noel's post above and it opens a new window the width of my monitor, but did not realize that I could click it again for an even larger view.

[David Kennedy]

Robert and Brian make some good observations. I think that overall the stitch went well, but was also noticing some weirdness in the ripples of the water. To be fair, wave action is really hard to deal with and I don't think there even is a "good" way to approach it. You did pretty well, but there are some spots that could be worked on with cloning or Quick Masking between the middle and right thirds of the image.

I thought that overall, the mountains and the water lacked a lot of contrast. I would be in favor of eliminating the darker edges and boosting the contrast of the mountains and the water with some work in curves. I've posted an example of what I mean, but because I'm working on a laptop right now, and because the posted image will be small any ways, I wouldn't take it as a literal "this is a finished product" sort of repost. It's more of a guideline or suggestion of how much farther you could go with contrast, and how the colors of the water start to pop out the farther you go.

Cheers,
David

[Noel Carboni]

Thanks guys. GREAT suggestions! You folks really have eagle eyes!

-Noel

[Arthur Morris]

I do not have eagle eyes but I love David's crop. Do agree with Robert on the need for more sky...