I’ve been having some fun over the last few mornings shooting the ships and buildings across the harbour from our house. Dawn seems to be the most interesting time. The sky is juicy with yummy colours, the lights are still on, and the water is calm and glassy.

Here’s a shot that shows how NOT to do a panorama. This was made from three exposures. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my tripod head perfectly level, so I got this curvy horizon that I have not found a way fix in Photoshop:

The next shot looks like a crop of the one above, but it’s actually made of three separate exposures glommed together. One is underexposed, one is normal exposure, and one is overexposed. These can be combined in Photoshop (called HDR) to bring out details that would otherwise not be seen. If you click to enlarge, you’ll see a surprising amount of detail for shot taken about 200 metres away with a relatively inexpensive camera (my Canon G9):

This next one is interesting also for the level of detail. You can again see the curved horizon because my camera was not perfectly level. Click this one to enlarge and you’ll see some remarkable detail:

I’m also putting an even more detailed version of this photo here. If you want to see some guys walking around on the dock at the far left, then click on the link above.  Your browser should load it in a separate window (or tab). You should then be able to scroll around to see the detail. As I mentioned, you can see some fellows walking around on the wharf at the far left. You can also see some flying fox bats cruising around in the sky above the buildings. I have to admit that I was a bit amazed at the amount of detail contained in the image.

If you like, you can right-click on the image in your browser (the full-sized one) and choose “Save Picture As . . .” and put it on your computer wherever you like.

Tôi sẽ nhìn thấy bạn vào ngày mai.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Photography Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.