Pano Fail

Well, I attempted a stitched pano shot to capture a wider scene than my DA15mm could manage. Unfortunately I feel I haven't left enough space for a decent crop - to me it needs more space on the right hand side of the aqueduct. I'll put that down to the ND filter which made it hard to see what I was doing

Any ideas for crops, or is it a case of go back and try again? Any other observations to bear in mind for when I do go back?

I don't think that's a failure - why not crop as best you can, make some adjustments as required and see what you have.

I can see potential in what you have there.

Certainly worth a try at a square crop, though you may not have quite enough foreground to make it work convincingly. If you go back, be sure to grab a little more of the foreground - the worst that can happen is you end up cropping it out anyway.

A portrait version may also work - see my cack-handed, half asleep effort below. (Let me know if this isn't appropriate and I'll remove it)

At the very least, don't discard this until you've tried a few ideas!

[IMG]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r35/digitalCG/Random/elshng7a.jpg[/IMG]

Yes, I tried a square crop, but ended up with the bridge too central. I think your portrait crop works much better, and I like what you've done with the color of the foliage at the top of the shot. Thanks very much!

I tried a few crops. None of them looked quite right to me (so Im not posting any of them). For me, the question is "What happened to the river?".

The last time I saw water like that was in a (computer-generated) simulation. I think, if the still water under the bridge was clone-stamped to replace the unreal (to my eyes) looking ripples, then the cropping would be a different exercise. Perhaps, this was one of the times when a polariser would have made a difference

Personally, I would hate to see the shallow water, and the moss covered boulder, go from the left hand side.
Geoff

Good idea re the polariser, will use one next time. Was caught up in the process of rendering the water blurry (which I thought would make stitching easier, and to me looks nice) and lost sight of how those ripples could overpower the image. I could have a go at darkening the reflections, but to me the blurred water adds to the shot.

Whereas to me it doesn't. It is so blurry it looks like ice, which doesn't go with the leaves on the trees, or the shallow water at the edge.

Good job we don't all like the same thing though .

As far as cropping it goes why not just use a 2:3 crop? It seems to work pretty well.

Edit:typo

I know exactly where you're coming from Gwyn... I guess this was something I just had to try! It's a familiar scene to me, I was trying to make more of a surreal quality which captures the relentless flow of the water, than a record shot. With faster shutter speeds, the ripples actually become quite busy, drawing attention a bit too much. But doctor Jeff's suggestion of a CP filter would help subdue the appearance of those ripples without such an extreme blur effect, so I will try that next time. My only concern is that the constantly changing ripples will make stitching difficult.

I rather like the blurred water, to my mind it adds to the interest as it looks slightly 'unnatural' amongst everything else and draws me to it. It's a tricky one in terms of crops. How many pics is it constituted from? is it a stitch of four pics put together 2x2 to make a square? if so, and I was able to go back, I might try an extra 2 shots to extend the pic to the right and shave just a little off the left... Of course I don't know what's there though... I wouldn't be so strong as to call it a fail (some of my stitched panos really ARE fails :mrgreen

Cheers

Yes, it's 2 x 2. I think what you say is spot on - I need another couple of shots on the right. I guess I was a bit disappointed to have come back with nearly - but not quite - enough shots to make it work