Panoramas

 f/5 at 1/20 sec ISO 4000 using my Nikkor 50mm 1.8G

Creating a panorama is easy! Sometimes nothing short of a panorama will capture the breadth of a scene and making them         doesn't even require a tripod. 

I shoot with a visible grid in the viewfinder all the time but it is especially useful to do so when creating a panorama. Once you have found your location pan your camera across the area while looking through the viewfinder to make certain your lens can capture everything you want. It is helpful to shoot in portrait though not necessary (the above was shot in landscape). Set your camera to aperture priority and meter the brightest part of the scene. Be sure to keep that aperture small enough to keep foreground, middleground & background elements in reasonable focus. Once your camera gives you the correct shutter speed start shooting from one end of the vista to the other. Make sure your shots overlap (the grid is helpful here). Also....be sure to stop moving before taking your shot!

Once you have enough captures throw them all into Camera Raw and click on the brightest photo of the group then choose the "select all" option on the upper left. Make whatever edits are necessary then move on into Photoshop. From Photoshop select "File --- > Automate --- > Photomerge." Choose the open files and click "OK."

Be patient! If your file sizes are large this process can take some time. Photoshop is aligning the photos based on landmarks in the images and distorting some of them to match it all up. Once the process is done you will see one large, nice panorama with a little bit of blank canvas around the edges. Simply crop, merge layers.....then voila!

Mark William Mills Images