San Francisco Panorama from Twin Peaks

[jbaldocchi]

Hi Everyone, I shot three images yesterday when we had a break in rain storms. I used photomerge in CS3 and turned them into a panorama for my photoshop class. Your input is requested. I'm going to try a 12 image panorama next. I used a tripod and a Canon G10, the iso was 80 in raw mode.

[MB1]

I'd suggest it is a compositionial no-no to put the horizon in the center of the final image. It really removes energy and interest from the frame.

Sure, I understand that you need to place it there for a good panoramic merge but for the final image I think you need to crop either the sky or the land if you want a lot of impact for your panorama.

In this case (since the foreground looks interesting) I would crop half of the sky out of the final.

[Ridgetop]

I'm with MB on this one. Crop just below the big cloud in the upper right hand corner I think. That way the distant clouds are still visible without all the empty blue and centered horizon.

[zen]

Just another thought on the crop,...you might want to see what it looks like if you crop top down to about halfway through (prolly a hair more) the big cloud, camera right. This, I think would balance better for the brighter half of the city, and that lil piece of road on the left.
Cropping here would still leave your horizon line well above static center.

[jbaldocchi]

Thanks for all you suggestions, I'll try them out tonight.

[dwaugh]

I've done a fair share of panoramics and I've always joined them manually (not with a merging program). I'm really particular because of that. I notice a line that also looks like a slight change in brightness 1/3 from the left of the photo in the sky. That's one thing that I never allow to show. I suggest trying to fix it. Looks good otherwise (although it would look better with the other suggestions presented).

[jbaldocchi]

Hi David, I agree on the web you can see a line but when I print it there isn't a line. I actually made this for print. As you know you really can't see the detail on the web. This is my first attempt and will discuss with my instructor tonight about the manual joining of the images and also about the 1/3 stop brightness issue. Thanks again for your input.