Topic: Stitched Monsoon

[Randall Kayfes]

Monsoon approaching the house - Stitched from 8 photos.
The magnificent size took my breath away.
The temperature differential (approximately 15F) created about two full hours of lightning.
The Catalina Mountains in the background peak at roughly 9000' to give some scale to the height of the system
The length of the mountain range you can see is roughly 15-20 miles.

[DanS]

wow, that would make a challenging jigsaw puzzle. Great shot!

[gwwilk]

Looks great!  I almost expected to see your shadow extending out towards the mountains, but you must have been shooting from the shade of your house.

For the curious among us, would you care to share some of the technical details of the equipment and software you used?

[SlowModem]

That's a marvelous picture!   

[Matt - AZ]

Awesome picture! Thanks for sharing!

Matt

[Randall Kayfes]

Thank you for the encouragement and yes you are seeing the shadows of my house (taken from second story window).

Canon EOS T2i in RAW.  Eight photos with roughly 40% overlap.  I got the expsure set from the south side of the mountains which was the brightest.  I then shoot and only half release which ensures the exposure remains consistant in all shoots.  I then use Corel AfterShot Pro to tidy up the photos.  AfterShot allows me to adjust one photo and then copy those adjustments exactly to all the others.  I then export the series to Microsoft ICE (free) to stitch them together.  The key for me is to process the photos before the stitching process.

Also clouds are moving objects so you have to move fast - In ohter words get the bright one out of the way and continue to hold half shutter release. Then start your series including redoing the the exposure setting shot.

[gwwilk]

Canon EOS T2i in RAW.  Eight photos with roughly 40% overlap.  I got the expsure set from the south side of the mountains which was the brightest.  I then shoot and only half release which ensures the exposure remains consistant in all shoots.  I then use Corel AfterShot Pro to tidy up the photos.  AfterShot allows me to adjust one photo and then copy those adjustments exactly to all the others.  I then export the series to Microsoft ICE (free) to stitch them together.  The key for me is to process the photos before the stitching process.

Excellent!  Thanks for sharing.  The tip about exposure is especially informative because I did notice that your exposure was absolutely consistent throughout.  Again, great job.