There are times when the scene before me calls for an aspect ration that my camera does not offer. Sometimes the scene has a very wide field of view but I don’t want to include as much sky or foreground as it would take to use an ultra wide lens. Sure I could crop to a pano aspect ratio in the digital darkroom but, that would entail throwing away a lot of data that I paid big bucks for in the first place. I want to keep all the resolution I can so I can make large output from the file. This leaves me with the option of making a pano by shooting three (in this case) frames of the scene with a longer lens. By using a longer lens I am able to control the amount of foreground and sky in the frame and I can shoot as many frames as necessary to get the full sweep from left to right, resulting in an aspect ratio that includes the elements I chose no more, no less…
Here are the steps I use (both in camera and later in the digital darkroom) to make a panoramic image…
-Nikon D3 with an AF-S 24-70mm 2.8 mounted on a tripod with ballhead (Gitzo GT3541LS with Really Right Stuff BH-55), using both the bubble on the tripod as well as Virtual Horizon in the camera, I get the camera leveled. Next I pan through the scene checking exposure values from one side to the next. In this case they were very close (within a half stop) so, I simply selected the desired aperture and left the camera in aperture priority. *If the range of light between frames is greater than a stop but within say 1 1/2 stops I will get the middle value, set my camera to manual and shoot all three frames the same. If the range is greater than a stop or two, I will set the camera to bracket and do an HDR of each frame, combine them using Photomatix and then make a pano in Photoshop CS5. I set the focus manually and overlap the frames giving Photoshop enough information to build a pano from the three frames…
I hold my hand in front of the lens before the first frame to let me know that I have done something that requires additional attention later in the digital darkroom. Then, moving from left to right, I shoot as many frames as needed to get everything I will want in the final image. After the last frame I hold my hand up again and click the shutter to let me know I’m at the end of my pano.
Later, in the digital darkroom, I processed the frames using Nikon Capture NX2 and simply saved the images as shot into tifs. With the three tif images open in Photoshop CS5, I select File> Automate> Photomerge and select the images that I want to stitch. I usually go with the default /auto setting, check Blend images together and click OK. Then I sit back and let Photoshop CS5 do all the heavy lifting of matching details and the exposure to make a seamless pano…
*notice the extreme warping…this is due to the fact that I used a moderately wide lens (34mm). If I had zoomed in more and turned the camera to vertical I would have avoided the distortion…something I filed away and now use my 70-200mm more often.
Next, I crop the file to the aspect ratio that includes everything I want in the frame…
A few finishing touches in Photoshop using NIK plug-ins (Tonal Contrast, Glamour Glow and Brilliance and Warmth) a selective darkening of the right side and a slight boost in overall exposure using Curves and I have the finished image…
It actually took me longer to write this blog than to make the images in the camera and blend them in Photoshop it’s that easy. In fact, when there is more light I will often do a hand held pano and still get a great image in the end.
Image created with Nikon D3X, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar Digital Media.
