Picture This

Panoramics

Shutterbug Staff  |  Dec 10, 2012  |  First Published: Nov 1, 2012

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Panoramics,” and we asked readers to send us a wide view unattainable by using a single lens, or to crop a wide shot so it had an aspect ratio that mimicked the format. The eye cannot possibly see all that a panoramic photo offers in one glimpse, whether it be in looking at the print or especially in the field. Panoramics once did (and still do) require some special techniques, although now that it’s a Scene mode, or made by sweeping the camera across the field, it’s so much easier to accomplish than before. Yet, even with the ease of the take, a good panorama still relies on content, light, and thought, as witnessed by the images submitted by readers.

Santorini

Photographer David Veal created this classic travel portrait of a fanciful town in Greece with a Nikon D700 and an exposure of f/10 at 1/400 sec. He shot four images and combined them in Photoshop’s Photomerge.
© David Veal

Evening Storm

This low-key mood and striking light was captured by Ed Knight in Colorado’s Cordova Pass. The view encompasses eight stitched shots with a Canon EOS 60D and a Canon EF 70-300mm IS lens; exposure was f/13 at 1/30 sec at ISO 400.
© Ed Knight

Boys’ Choir

Alan Johanson made this panorama of the African Boys’ Choir while on their tour in Port Townsend, Washington, with a Kodak Z990 in Sweep Panorama mode.
© Alan Johanson

Gondola In The Mist

This near-surreal image of a ski lift in Courmayeur, Italy, was made by Benjamin Zelermyer with a Canon PowerShot G9. Exposures were stitched using Photomerge in Photoshop CS5.
© Benjamin Zelermyer

Storm Over Lake Worth Lagoon

Robert K. Bailey caught this amazingly shaped and quite threatening cloud from his balcony with two exposures from a Canon EOS 7D and an EF-S 18-200mm lens which he then Photomerged in Photoshop. (By the way, he wrote that the storm passed by with very little rain.)
© Robert K. Bailey

From A Helicopter

You have to admire the skill it takes to make a panorama from a moving helicopter, but that’s what Todd Quam (Digital Sky Aerial Imaging) did in this four-shot panorama of San Francisco at dusk. He shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 35mm f/1.4L lens.
© Todd Quam

Roman Forum

Perfect composition, perfect day, perfect exposure, great place…that’s what we thought when we saw this classic panorama of the modern-day Forum taken by Ronald L. Stevens. He stitched four images from an Olympus EVOLT E-510 using Photoshop Elements and added an illustrative touch with Topaz’s HDR Pop filter.
© Ronald L. Stevens

California Girl(s)

The sequence shot, where action or motion is tracked through a number of frames and then combined to one image, is a fascinating wrinkle on the technique. Here Robert Ciardi made this three-shot sequence with a Nikon D300 and stitched the image in Photoshop Elements. Take a close look at the subject within the frame—it isn’t triplets.
© Robert Ciardi

Monterey Boats

You don’t often see panoramas that look straight down, but that’s what Steve Miller did for this set of shots made with a Leica V-LUX 1 combined in Photoshop Elements.
© Steve Miller

Play Ball!

Kristoffer Cox made this four-shot panorama of the Minnesota Twins home field on game night with a Pentax K-5 and a Pentax 18-55mm lens mounted on a Sirui T-1005X tripod and a Sirui K-20X ball head. Exposure at ISO 400 was f/4 at 1/20 sec.
© Kristoffer Cox

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain

Eva Gryk made this stunning twilight shot using the Sweep Panorama mode on her Sony NEX-3. Exposure at ISO 1000 was f/18 at 1/60 sec.
© Eva Gryk

On Approach

Matthew C. Fischbach made this stunning panoramic sequence with four images shot with a Canon EOS 20D and an EF 75-300mm lens. Exposure at ISO 400 was f/5.6 at 1/2000 sec.
© Matthew C. Fischbach

Photo Finish

Sometimes shooting motion with the Sweep Panorama mode can result in some fascinating studies in time and motion, as they did in this photo at a horse race made by George J. Reitbauer with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V.
© George J. Reitbauer

Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC

Ed Matisoff worked with manual exposure (f/8 at 1/15 sec) for this five-shot panorama of a gorgeous sky. He worked with a Nikon D200 and a 28mm PC Nikkor lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod with a BH-55 Really Right Stuff ball head.
© Ed Matisoff

Picture This! – Our Next Assignment
Negative Space
Shadows play an important role in photography. They define shape, size, and often distance, and create visual play for the eye as it looks at the scene. Often called “negative space,” deep shadows, where little or no detail resides, can also play an important compositional role, as they do here in this photo of the Rio Pueblo River outside Taos, New Mexico, taken with a Canon PowerShot G11 with an exposure of f/4 at 1/1000 sec, with exposure locked on the bright side of the valley wall. Our next Picture This! assignment is to send us images utilizing negative space, be they landscapes, portraits, cityscapes, or abstracts, and to show how they can bring a strong compositional influence to every subject and scene.

© George Schaub

Please Read This
It is important that you read and follow these guidelines. We need to follow this procedure because of the large volume of images we receive. If you have any questions, please e-mail us at: editorial@shutterbug.com.

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5) Please submit no more than three photos for consideration (4x6 up to 81/2x11).

Send your image and information to:
Picture This! Shutterbug Magazine,
1415 Chaffee Dr., Suite #10, Titusville, FL 32780.
Deadline for submission: December 15, 2012.
Images will appear in our March 2013 issue.
Our next topic: Patterns
Deadline: January 15, 2013
Publication Date: April, 2013

Please note: We receive hundreds of submissions for Picture This! each month and want to be sure we properly identify each image we publish. Please put your name and all camera, exposure information on the back of the print or attached to slides when submitting. Also, please include your e-mail address in case we need to contact you.

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