First attempt at a panoramic. Downsized significantly here. Emerald Lake at RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park). I can understand why folks use rails for these now.
Oh man, I didn't catch that. Some lean in, but not as much as shown in the photo. I think I need to start over with this one. Did I mention this was my first? Sorry about that.
Nice effort, but I'd also work on the 1/4 and mid tones and brighten them up a bit. The lake is a bit dark. But I can see you've protected highlights. Should be able to pull some more detail out of the dark areas and give it some more pop.
Ok - any tips on this? I have not been able to stitch these together without the trees leaning in. I have used Canon's photostitch software, which seems pretty limited. I also used PSE 6.0. Should I tilt the first image on the left before stitching them together?
I would recommend using a trial version of PtGui as it realy is superb and very powerful.
I'm not sure what features PSE 6 has, but if it has distortion correction you can straighten the trees up somewhat via that, or use the crop tool and click the perspective correction box.
You could also try hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/), a free, open-source stitcher. I haven't used it lately (tried it a couple of years ago), but it seems competent. Good panos are likely to require more work on your part than with a commercial product like PtGui or AutoPano Pro, however.
Thank you for the comments. It is a wonderful place to visit and there is a ton to see on a relatively short hike. It is 1.8 miles each way and there are 4 lakes and a waterfall to see. You can also catch a glimpse of the continental divide.
I will download and try both tools. I believe my errors to be the result of Parallex errors. I rotated the camera on a tripod.
Will these programs handle this or do I need to get some hardware to allow for rotating below the focal point of the lens?
This was my first attempt at this, but I can already see the potential!
In order to see the true color of this lake, and the reason for its' name, you must see it from the trail going up Flattop Mountain. The right hand side of the photo. But I guess you could just climb Hallet Peak and see it also.
These photos bring back OLD memories. Thanks for posting them.