Tutorial on photo stitching, plus some nice Sunrise pics, Scarborough, UK Oct 2016

in #photography8 years ago (edited)

I was fortunate enough to be up bright and early this morning to capture a quite stunning sunrise.
By the time I had ran downstairs and upstairs to get some more pics (about 30 seconds) the reds and oranges had faded, but I caught just about enough of them.

Sunrise over Scarborough UK pic 1
(With some colour editing)
Scarborough South Bay Sunrise 1
Pic 1, Portrait format. Part of the sequence of pics which I stitched in Photoshop.(Photomerge)

How to stitch a picture (Using multiple shots in Photoshop / similar editing program)

I took the pics in portrait (with the camera sideways) format. I did this to allow a taller picture, as I knew I would be merging 7 or 8 pics. For this it is best to pick the most neutral area of the sky/ landscape (not the brightest or darkest) and meter it in your camera. Once the settings and focus are good, then you need to switch the camera to manual and shoot away.
Start at the left or right, take one pic, then try to only rotate the camera slighty for each picture. Leave plenty of overlap, picking a point to the left or right of the pic as reference. This works far better if you have a tripod (or safe / steady place on a wall) as you can just turn the camera using the tripod.

I added them to photoshop, selected the file menu, automate then photomerge. It usually works very well, but as I didn't have time to take a few sets of pictures this morning, you will maybe notice some slight edges where the waves/ colours don't quite match. (to the right of the longer pic)

Advantages and disadvantages of stitching

The advantage of stitching pics like this is that it will print to a much larger size with much more detail.
The disadvantages are the large file size, and possible errors in the joins/ perspective.

Taking the pics as quickly as possible in succession will help with any errors, but things like moving water or subjects may take a fair bit of editing.
I got lucky, as the 2 seagulls that you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pics, are in fact the same seagull !!

Sunrise over Scarborough UK pic 2 stitched
Scarborough South Bay Sunrise 2
Pic 2, 4/ 5 picture stitch. Part of the sequence of pics which I stitched in Photoshop.(Photomerge)
Here is the imugr direct link
This one has better seams than the last image, if you click on the link you can see some of the detail captured in the pic.

*Tip - Watch for the horizon, you need to keep it straight.

Smartphone / Smart camera.

Many smartphones or cameras will have this feature built in, so why not give it a try, it's much easier than you would think.

Tip for smartphone or normal camera.
One thirds rule.
A good idea to go for one the one thirds rule, so either place your horizon one third up, or down in the picture, depending if you want more emphasis on the sky or the landscape.

Sunrise over Scarborough UK pic 3 stitched
Scarborough South Bay Sunrise 3. A stitch of 9 pictures.
Here is the imugr direct link
You can see some of the seams here, and given more time, I would have worked on either taking more pics, or spending more time editing the seams.
If you are viewing this on a PC, try checking out how much detail this pic and the previous one have.**** Pretty amazing.

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