Columbia Gorge Pano - Washed out to Better colors

[Bianca.Tarleton]

I took this picture back in October off Highway 14 in the Columbia Gorge. You can see the towns of Bingen, WA and Hood River, OR. Its a stitch of 8 pictures. The first result wasn't too bad, but I wanted to work on bringing out the hues of blue in the water and sky.
Before:


After:


I did some tweaking in color curves, did A LOT of burning, and finally resorted to the "blue skies" tool. I'd still like to work on the sky. Never been able to master fill or adjustment layers. Any C&C are greatly appreciated!

[sjlarue]

Originally Posted by Bianca.Tarleton

...
I did some tweaking in color curves, did A LOT of burning, and finally resorted to the "blue skies" tool. I'd still like to work on the sky. Never been able to master fill or adjustment layers. Any C&C are greatly appreciated!

A good first attempt. but some things need improving. First your blend lines are too sharp. You can tell where each picture ends and begins. I would have to bet that you used auto exposure. So first rule of Panos is Manual focus. Expose for the brightest part, or near the brightest of the pano and then take all of your shots with that exposure.

Second Rule is overlap at least 30% that will aid in blending.

Third, what stitching program did you use? I use Photoshop's CS3 photomerge on mine. It does a good job blending. If you used Photosho's Photomerge, make sure that you have auto blending turned on...that will help. But the critical part is remembering rule #1.

Now as far as the PP.

The ground colors are just a little over done for my taste but It still looks good. Try using masks to just darken the sky. That will help so that you don't have to darken the ground so much.

Hope this helps.

[Bianca.Tarleton]

Originally Posted by sjlarue

Third, what stitching program did you use? I use Photoshop's CS3 photomerge on mine. It does a good job blending. If you used Photosho's Photomerge, make sure that you have auto blending turned on...that will help. But the critical part is remembering rule #1.

Thanks for the comments! I used "photostitch," which is software that came with my Canon. I've played around with photomerge on PS for HDR's, never was too happy with them so I didn't even think to give it a try there for the pano. I believe I did do about a 30% overlap, the only line I can see is towards the left hand side in the clouds. Are there more?

Also, I'd like to learn how to use masks but have never gotten any results with them. Have any tips that I can try playing around with here?
Thanks again!

[sjlarue]

Here is what I did with your image:

nothing drastic and needed more done to some areas, but it will help in describing where the lines are:



Where the red is is where there are "exposure" lines. One picture is lighter than the other so when they are stitched together, theline shows up. where the yellow line is, somehow a line of clouds was disrupted so there is a noticeable line.


"Photomerge" is basically for panos, or for stitching two photos together. It is different than "Merge for HDR." I used to use photostitch for a few images, but I found that photomerge was more...forgiving than photostitch.

AS a matter of fact, try using PS's Photomerge, it might help with the cloud lines. It will lighten and darken to reduce the amount of lines. If it drags your computer down, merge three or four then merge three or four more, then merge the resulting files together. The most important thing again is exposure and overlap...followed by keeping the horizon level...I shoot enough overlap so that I don't need a tripod. I turn the camera sideways so that if I miss a little sky, it won't be a problem.

[sjlarue]

Are the images RAW? If they are, open all of them together in ACR through Bridge and reduce the exposure, a stop for the ones on the right, and the match the others visually so that they are close. then use photomerge to merge and blend them.

If I were to take this one over, I would have exposed for the clouds on the right since that is where the sun is. Then take all of the pictures with that exposure.

[Bianca.Tarleton]

Originally Posted by sjlarue

Are the images RAW? If they are, open all of them together in ACR through Bridge and reduce the exposure, a stop for the ones on the right, and the match the others visually so that they are close. then use photomerge to merge and blend them.

If I were to take this one over, I would have exposed for the clouds on the right since that is where the sun is. Then take all of the pictures with that exposure.

Unfortunately they weren't taken in RAW. shortly afterwards I made the full switch, this project being one of the main reasons. I'm really kicking myself for it now.

[sjlarue]

Originally Posted by Bianca.Tarleton

Unfortunately they weren't taken in RAW. shortly afterwords I made the full switch, this project being one of the main reasons. I'm really kicking myself for it now.

YOu can still do minor corrections in ACR. Or you can do it in PS with a levels adjustment and a mask...regarding the mask BTW, There are TONS of videos on masking. so you can google it also you can go to Mark Johnson's page and watch the photoshop 101 video series in which he goes from beginning to end and explains a lot in there...including masking. the link is:

Mark S. Johnson Photography » Photoshop 101

Have fun!