A wide pano for sure, but I am wondering if a sunset like this can be printed with success, or if that image is too dark and only works on self-illuminated media (ah, the old slide to print disappointment...)
This is stiched from 6 images (out of 9 I made) using CS3 photomerge. Beyond that just a little curves adjustment, and a 20% magenta filter effect - I am currently reading Joe McNally's "The moment it clicks", and couldn't resist adding the magenta he recommends for sunsets. Looks good to me :-)
More tech specs: D70 with 18-70 mm at 70. Manual mode f/5.6 at 1/100s, ISO 200 with tripod.
Cheers,
Christof
Last edited by Christof Ruch; 03-21-2008 at 12:03 PM.
I was wondering how it would look with the shadows opened up so I did a Shadow/Highlight adjustment and decided to post it. An interesting this happened, the green grass in the FG and the tan grass in the middle ground revealed some nice mid-tones and the trees remained sillouttes. I really live it and figured I share it. Might be something to try while deciding whether to print or not.
Christof,
With good soft-proofing beforehand, you should be able to print this without too many problems. Small test prints are always a wise investment of your time, as they save you from the frustration of walking away from the printer and coming back to a big, expensive, ugly print!
One thing I might suggest is that images like this, with proportions drastically favoring the width over the height, can be difficult to approach for a viewer if they are presented too wide. How large did you plan to print this?
@Robert: Many thanks for your repost, it looks better! - and got me thinking: I had already prepared an edited version which has a black NG from top to bottom, and a white (lightening) NG from bottom to top - this does a similar effect as S&H in lightening the green crop, and making the sky somewhat more dramatic. Version attached.
@David: Thanks for thumbs up here, I was actually planning to have this printed and not print it myself... I found a poster printing service that offers panorama formats up to 10:1 ratio. This is about 6.5:1, and agree it looks pretty wide... But I think I can easily crop it down.Would you suggest a "max" pano ratio that should not be exceeded? (I'm studying your pano composition theory in my spare time ;-)
Christof,
I'm flattered that you're asking what I would do re: max ratios for panos as by no means am I the definitive authority on the subject. That said, I personally would probably not stretch beyond 5:1 (width:height). The majority of my panos--but certainly not all of them--seem to fall around the "golden mean" of 8:3, and they're often composed of 7 or 8 vertical captures. But that kind of compositional strategy doesn't always fit the subject. Horses for courses, as Michael Reichmann would probably say.
If you were to crop down your image, I think you could follow something along the lines of this suggestion and get a very dramatic result. And if you'll be printing it through a lab, I would ask them for the printer profile so you can soft proof the image and prep it so what you see on screen is very close to what they produce.
David, this is an amazing crop I hadn't come up with myself - looks simple, but I somehow always tended to "balance" the sun with trees to the left. I like yours much better, attached my version of it!
This nearly feels like being there a second time - and taking that photo again... Should have done so while I was there in the first place, but then, why not using the technology available :-)?
Sorry for my delay in posting--I've been away from home for a while and I struggled to stay on top of e-mail, let alone BPN, while I was gone. I think that this latest version is certainly your strongest, and I'm glad that you agree that excising the tree on the left made for a more intimate composition. Again, I would just be careful about making it "too" dark--I think you still run the risk of having too little separation in tonality between the foreground grass and the silhouetted trees. Just a slight boost in overall brightness (achieved in Curves--I'd never actually suggest using the "Brightness" slider) should help. Cheers!
David
To print or not to print?
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