James Gaston

11 May - Oh Wow! (2,480 m)

Map of Oh Wow - 12 May

Oh Wow panoramas
12 May 2021 Oh Wow panoramas 12 May 2021 Haute Route

Stitching a panorama, especially once you've more than a couple shots, can be puzzling. Here are three examples. The first is made of 5-shots stitched and filled out* with Lightroom. The second and third are created with Microsoft's ICE using 8 shots. Each program has its pluses and minuses and I'm not sure which I prefer.

None of these are particularly beautiful photos. There is distortion aplenty though it's not so obvious given the subject matter; rocks, grass, and forests being amorphous in shape. There is also not much detail in these posted files as, by necessity, they are wildly shrunk—from about 14k pixels wide in the original files down to 2,500 pixels for web display. You can also see weird artifacts, like where the sky's color changes at the stitch borders (fixable, with effort). Finally, there is just the challenge of representing an almost 180 degree scene with a flat canvas. All that said, the photos give a taste of the experience of standing at this point.

For best viewing, sit in front of a big monitor, click on the caption under the photo, and then press the "open full size in new window" link. It's the icon on the third line, the right of the camera exif data.

*Both programs offer to fill in missing information. Sometimes it's brilliant, sometimes it isn't. You just have to try it and see.