Question of the Month – Improving Panoramas
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Lake Willoughby, Vermont
This month I received a technical question from pro photographer Johnathan Esper who asked:
“How do you blend the sky so well in your stitched panoramas? I mean, when I am including sky in images, especially when using a polarizer filter, and despite all precautions including full manual control during exposure, and vignetting reduction prior to stitching, I get dark and light banding in the blue sky. I am stuck in Photoshop using clone tool, burn and dodge tool, shadow/highlight tool to all help even out the tone differences in the sky, but nothing’s perfect.”
This is a common problem with stitched images involving lots of blue skies. Stitching is the technical term for taking several photos of a scene while the camera is moved along a single axis, usually horizontally. Here are some ways to improve your panoramas…