Sunrise, Bryce Point, originally uploaded by DaveWilsonPhotography.

While in Utah last month, I shot a huge number of panoramas. Most of these were because I wanted to capture a wide, narrow image – huge vistas at Zion and Bryce – but several were because I reckoned the view needed a few more megapixels to allow me to start thinking seriously about producing some really large canvases. Part of this was also because I didn’t want to have to use my horribly unsharp Sigma 10-20mm (which I am now convinced is actually faulty – anyone know if Sigma can service their lenses?) when I could use the wonderfully crisp Nikon 24-70mm and stitch two frames together to cover the same viewing angle.

Although most of the panos were shot with the 24-70mm, this was one where I used a telephoto instead. It’s comprised of 6 images arranged in two rows of three horizontal tiles and was shot with my 70-300mm to allow me to capture the great light and detail in the hoodoos on the opposite side of the Bryce Canyon amphitheatre from the Bryce Point viewpoint. The original image is about 50MP and I expect will look great as a 6ft x 2ft canvas (though I’m not sure if I will be able to afford one or not!).

A few tips when shooting panoramas:

1. Focus on the subject then switch to manual to prevent the camera from refocusing as you shoot the tiles.
2. Use manual exposure to prevent the camera from changing the aperture or shutter speed as you shoot each tile.
3. Either shoot from a tripod with a swivel head or handhold and do a dry run before shooting to make sure you can twist as far as you need to to get all the shots.
4. Overlap each image by about 30% or so to allow your stitching program some areas to work with.

For stitching, I’m using Photoshop CS4 and am absolutely amazed at what a good job it does in masking the individual tiles together. If you can find the joins in this image, you are doing a great job since I’ve been unable to find any hint of a bad edge.