Panorama (3)

Requirement

3 or 4 photographs

Purpose

•  To show the basic horizontal nature of the landscape
• To consider different compositions using frame shapes

Technical learning

• The most common way people look at panoramic scenes (i.e. one with a clear view in all directions) is to scan them horizontally, largely ignoring the foreground and most of the sky
• The appeal of the panoramic image is not only the way its matches many scenes but also, when used well, it conveys a sense of grandeur and expansiveness
• Panoramas are usually most successful when they are large

Exercise instructions

Imagine a strip blocked off at the top and bottom of the frame. Make the imaginary proportions between 2:1 and 3:1. As long as you have the horizon line in view you will find it easy to make satisfactory compositions. In at least 1 image find a natural point of interest and place it to one side of the frame. Crop the image in post-production. Make a small and large version of the panorama and judge which one has most impact.

Images and Review

I used images which had several weaknesses in compoistion when shot in 3:2 and tried to improve them by cropping in 3:1.

Beach at Burnham on Sea

Reduce the exagerrated leading lines of the steps
that distort the image. Result: a more balanced
composition in conveying the length and breadth
of the beach

The Heron Lake in Bushy Park, Kingston at dawn

Reduce the watery sky in the background and the flat expanse of
lake in the foreground. Result: image more tightly focused
on the trees and the edge of the lake 

A winter's morning in Blagdon Hill, Somerset 

Reduce the flat winter sky to a minimum,
remove the foreground hedges that lead the
eye towards the tree, anchor the tree at the
edge of the frame. Result: a cleaner, more balanced
expansive landscape 

Bushy Park, Kingston on a frosty morning

Remove the distraction of the branches (upper left and right),
eliminate the unsatisfactory sky and truncated middle
tree, eliminate the shadows in the foreground. Result: an image
that balances the textures and colours of the gorse with
those of the bare trees

Beach near Malaga, Spain in winter

Get rid of the distracting spur of decking (middle left),
cut down the plain blue sky. Result: Adds breadth to the beach, makes
the figures on the horizon more prominent (but loses
the sense of the large blue sky)

Looking out to the Bristol Channel at Burnham on Sea at high tide

Reduce storm clouds from two- to one-third of image. 
Result: better expresses the length and breadth of beach