Rodney Campbell's Blog

I’d just taken a shot using the Lee Little Stopper looking straight out over these poles into the dam when the sun was just rising over to the left. The heavy cloud on the horizon was still blocking the sun so the light was shining into the clouds and reflecting onto the landscape nicely.

I loved the way the grasses were being partially and intermittently lit by the golden light. In my mind I felt the lay of the land where we were standing would suit a wide panoramic view if I managed to put the composition together properly.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Broke Back

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 50 x 7 Frames

So this is a panorama stitch of seven vertical frames taken at a wide but not too wide focal length.

We are actually standing at the top of a small ridge along this side of the dam and the ridgeline (looking sort of straight ahead in this final image). The poles into the dam are at 90 degrees to the ridgeline so this entire pano probably spans more than 180 degrees of view.

I’m reasonably happy with the final result but it required a little work to bash it together. I also wish I’d taken one more frame on the right just to cover the rest of the dam and give the poles a touch more breathing room on the right. The main problem I faced in post processing was that I’d not bothered to take the polariser off when taking the panorama frames. This is usually a cardinal sin for stitched panoramas, especially ones which cover a wide angle of view with the direction of light changing radically between frames as it does here. The end result is massively uneven polarisation of the sky across the source frames. Frankly I couldn’t be bothered unscrewing the polariser but given the pain involved in fixing this in post I should have taken the option :).

Don't forget to Share...

Google

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

Email

Print