photoartflightPre-Sunrise Clouds – 24 Shot Panorama @ 400mm
I like going to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland for their colorful Sunrises and Sunsets. (Also for Eagles & Ospreys and…) On this day the clouds were very interesting so I was shooting a few different versions, compositions, focal lengths and Camera/lens combos. Then I noticed a thin long length of colorful clouds above the trees but below the main larger clouds. So I tried a 400mm with a 1.4X Teleconverter pano version. I shot 24 images with that combo, with large overlaps on each shot, all handheld. This is the Featured Image above. I used a lot of overlapping images because it usually lines up better, especially when the camera is handheld. If I do not need them I can just use a few instead. Below are more versions with different camera and lens combinations. Also some eagles that flew by in the colorful sky adding some interest and a subject in the colorful sky. In the featured image about 2/3rds over to the right there is a small dot below the clouds. That was another Bald Eagle flying through and I decided to leave it and not clone it out.
Blackwater NWR PreSunrise @ 24mm (2 image blend for foreground detail)
Blackwater NWR Sunrise, 2 Image pano @ 24mm
Blackwater NWR Sunrise @ 400mm, Canon 400mm DO lens
Blackwater NWR Sunrise @ 400mm, Canon 400mm DO lens w/ Canon 1.4X Teleconverter
Immature Bald Eagle Soaring in the Sunrise, Canon 400mm DO w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
Closer Bald Eagle Flying in the Sunrise, Canon 400mm DO w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
Happy sunrise to you. I’m impressed that you got that panorama hand-holding the camera.
Beautiful series!
Thanks! It is a fun place to shoot sunrises and sunsets!
Thank You! If you use Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw, you select your series of images, make your adjustments (sharpness, noise control, lenses profiles, etc.) then hit open in layers in Photoshop. Then select all the layers, hit auto align, then auto blend. You can also use auto fill for areas along top & bottom to smooth out the edges or crop them. Photoshop does most of the work. Above is a quick summary and you sometimes have to touch up here or there. My record is about 100 shots in multiple lengths and rows. Took about 8 hours for Photoshop to assemble and process. Start out with a few and you get used to it and then you tempt fate and do stupid amounts or subjects just to see if it works!