easy pano

Yesterday I posted about the Harris Brothers. Today I want to share this image with you from the event. Perfect example of how much Photoshop's Pano stitch has improved in CS4. In CS2 (the first version with built in pano stitch it was rough. You could do everything right and it would still come out all choppy. Now when I say right here is what I mean ... camera on tripod, manual exposure mode, manual focus and overlap your photos 20% or more. Kinda a pain. CS3 added some better blending but a tripod was still a must. Today in CS4 everything has changed. This image was taken in Aperture priority - exposure was just whatever the camera said it should be. I was hand-holding the camera and I was only roughly making sure I had a decent overlap. I pivoted on my center and hoped for the best.

Night and day from what we used to have to do! I don't consider a pano to be my bread and butter by any stretch of the immagination. I guess what I am trying to articulate is ... Panoramas are so easy to shoot now I usually pop one off in about 15 seconds that I can stitch together later. I am not counting on it as a shot (If I am counting on it I will usually take the pano three times doing it slightly different each time just to be sure). It is just a nice shot to have. Great for backgrounds and web galleries. A pano just looks cool. So go out and shoot some panoramas and have FUN!