Columbia Gorge (WA/OR) Panorama - Opinions Please!

[Bianca.Tarleton]

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I took this picture on the Washington side of the Columbia River of the two cities Hood River (OR) and Bingen/White Salmon (WA). Its a stitch of about 10 pictures. I did a little PP to deepen to blue water and tried to make the sky pop (in the original picture it was really washed out, was about 3:00 in the afternoon). I'm wondering if anyone has any techniques that they'd like to share? I'm fairely new at photoshop and am very limited in the skills I've been able to pick up. I'd like to get this in a large print and frame it in my living room, but want to make sure its actually worth framing IMO I'm about 75% of the way there. I'm just looking to make the sky a little more even, since the clouds melt in with the sky at the right side.

Thanks in advance! Don't hold back!

[windrider86]

Here is where you camera settings would play a huge part in helping you out. Without knowing them we cant tell you anything about the technical aspect about your image.

What you could try and do is to take two photos. Expose one for the sky and one for the landscape and then combine the two. Its pretty easy to do actually. Layer the two images , one on top of each other and then erase or mask out the area you want to go away

[navcom]

Hi Bianca!

Michelle is right...we would really like some EXIF data if you can. I know that with stitched pano's, it's not going to be in the final image, but you probably took all the shots with the same settings. Post that if you could.

I like the composition. It looks really good. But you are right...there is an issue with the sky and with the exposure in general. There isn't a lot that Photoshop can do to fix that. It's the harsh light of mid day.

My suggestion would be to go back to the spot (if you can) at a different time of the day, preferably early or late in the day when the sun is lower on the horizon. Your light will be much softer. My guess would be to pick the time of day that the sun is as much to the right side of the scene as possible (not sure what direction you are looking).

Also, if you can, a ND grad filter would help too if you are taking just ten horizontal shots. Leave the filter in the same location for each shot. If you are stitching vertically as well as horizontally it would get a little trickier.

Hope that helps!

[FoG]

Overall nice scene but I think the sky is too blown out use an ND filter when re-shooting to get mnor drama into the sky and balnce out the shoot