Ecola vista

[Winston Rockwell]

a three-frame composite panoramic, taken from Ecola Point State Park, looking south toward Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast. landmark Haystack Rock can be seen in the distance to the right of center. i have this printed at 12x36" and hanging on my living room wall, and it looks even better full size! 30D with Tamron 24-135 lens, 1/25 @ f18...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Winston!

This is once again a beautiful vista.

I love the layering of the rocks in the water in the mid-distance, then the water and behind those green hills and then in the far distance misty blue-gray hills and above those cloudy skies.

There's to me a dilemma. The picture, as is has small rocks and otherwise uninteresting water in the immediate foreground. However, with the land curving abruptly towards us from our left, we are pulled away from the main interest of the picture to the detail-impoverished foreground.

There are three options.

1. Ignore my reaction, as it might be wrong to you!

2. Add another frame to the left to complete where the pattern of the trees are going and maybe balance the left side of the picture better.

3. Crop away the entire lower 45% of the picture along its length as this area id detail and interest poor. Cropped thus, we have our eyes on this sumptuously layered landscape with an array of interest to intrigue us.

Asher

 

[Joe Russo]

Hi Winston,

What a terrific photograph! Like Asher I find the multitude of layered subjects very pleasing to look at. I also like the curve of the beach bringing us into the photograph. Both of these contribute to giving depth to the photograph and turning a 2D image into a 3D one. One more thing that I like is the 1:3 aspect ratio that you have chosen. I think this is perfect for panoramic shots.

I also like your post processing of the photograph to give a nice clean image with just the right amount of pop that makes me want to spend a lot of time looking at the image. Were I in your neighborhood, I'd ask if I could drop by and see the printed version as I'm sure it's stunning. Is there any chance you could comment, however briefly, on your post processing methodology?

My one nit is with the water in the lower right of the image. While there is some texture to the surface of the water it otherwise is a big negative space in the photograph. When I scan over the photo from left to right my attention 'falls out' of the picture when I get to this area. There is nothing to keep me 'in' the image. Not that you have any control over this but I think a boat anchored off shore would help to keep a viewers eye from wandering out of the picture. I suppose you could crop up as Asher has suggested but that would alter the aspect ratio away from the pleasing 1:3 that you currently have.

But as I said this is only a nit and it may just be me. This is a beautiful image.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Winston Rockwell]

thanks to both of you.

the issue with the open space at the bottom right is well taken. that is a large empty space. unfortunately, there's little to be done at this point. i could perhaps crop the lower third off, as Asher suggested, but that would result in a very long, narrow strip of an image, too short in the vertical dimension to produce a decent print. i had to do some interpolation as it was to get it to print at 12x36 with half-decent resolution; any more upsizing, and i fear i'd start degrading the image visibly.

as for post processing, there wasn't a whole lot involved. i stitched the three frames together using Arcsoft's PMK3 software, then played a bit with levels and contrast to give it a bit more pop. i also brought up the blues a little, to enhance the blue of the water and sky. that's about it.

Rocky

 

[Asher Kelman]

Winston,

The whole appeal of the picture is the great beautiful layered background which needs to be given more attention. This is so rich that it can take the eye on a heavenly wandering across the full width, especially when the distracting empty lower half is removed.

Yes, that's bold, but the gains are so impressive!

This then makes a great panorama. Try it you'll like it too!

The picture merits this attention and the picture easily makes a panorama that wide and 10" high!

This is what is needed, endless space for the eye to wander.

Asher

 

[Joe Russo]

Winston,

I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of making a crop of your original image that minimizes the negative space in the lower right hand corner but maintains the 1:3 ratio of the photograph. If you would prefer that I not do this in the future I will understand.

I think the loss of the top of the hill on the left as well the end of the land mass on the right does not detract significantly from the overall sweeping feeling of the photograph. The lower right hand corner negative space is 'shrunk' to a minimum.

What do you think?

 

[Winston Rockwell]

Joe,

i see the difference, though i might perhaps not have cropped quite so much from the right side...

for future reference, i don't mind others taking a crack at my compositions... it's the best way for me to see how it looks from a different perspective, and decide if i like it better than my own!