Here are two photos from last weekend's backpacking adventure. These were shot in the early morning at Mud Lake, the first destination on our journey. The first shot is the same 3:2 aspect ratio that the camera's image sensor is, the second shot is a stitched panoramic photo consisting of 16 photos that were stitched together in Photoshop's photomerge feature. I usually shoot a bunch of vertical photos when I do stitched panoramics in order to get an incredibly wide angle shot, but this time I felt that looked too wide angle for this scene so I shot a bunch of horizontal photos and stitched those together instead.

I like both photos a lot but I can't decide which one I like best...

If you were hanging a big print of this scene on your wall, would you prefer the top photo's traditional look, or the bottom panoramic photo?

click the images to view larger
#1

The photo above was shot on a Canon 5DS R with a 24-105mm lens set at 24mm. Two graduated neutral density filters were used, as well as a tripod. The ISO was 50, nice and low so the image has great resolution when printed. The aperture was f22 so the foreground and background were in sharp focus. This all led to a shutter speed of 4 seconds.

Shot with the same techniques and setting as the first image except that this was 16 photos stitched together. The shutter speed was a bit quicker, 3.2 seconds, since it was a little bit later and a little bit brighter out. You can see more sunlight on the trees below the mountain.

Thank you for looking and reading, have a great weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography