photoninja1 Loc: Tampa Florida

This time of year we see some pretty sunsets along the west coast of Florida. A couple of days ago conditions were setting up for a special show. There were lots of small storms, low clouds, and Saharan dust high over the Gulf of Mexico to provide color. Im not a big sunset shooter, but the possibilities looked too inviting to pass up. I set a tripod mounted Canon 5D MK III with a 70-200mm zoom near the water line and parked myself on a rock. I shot a few straight shots then shifted to panoramics of from four to nine exposures in vertical (portrait) format. The horizontal finals ranged between about 30 to 55 megapixels so processing time was long. It was my first attempt at this technique and I was surprised at the amount of distortion I ran into. Horizons had to be leveled before stitching, Lens correction filter was applied after stitching, then a final leveling of the horizon. The brightness range was very broad so global brightness adjustments didn't work well. Either I blew out highlights to open shadows or blocked up shadows to bring in highlights. I had to use luminosity masks to adjust contrast/brightness levels in the various ranges and still hold detail at both ends of the brightness range (another first for. me.). I'm excited that the project opened some new areas for me to explore, and eager to see the suggestions of those more experienced in these areas.

(Download)

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Looks perfect to me... the overall contrast is great, the clouds look soft as they should, the saturation is not overdone, the stitching is flawless, and the composition works. I can't think of anything which could possibly improve this gorgeous image. Well done! The obvious next step is to make a nice print of it and mount it on the wall.

photoninja1 Loc: Tampa Florida

Thanks for the encouragement . I think I lost some blues in the upper sky highlights, but I got to a point where more editing was kind of over the top.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Obviously I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what you saw, and how much blue was actually in the sky highlights. However, as presented, it looks quite believable and realistic, definitely not over-processed and artificial.

GregWCIL Loc: Illinois

Would benefit from a fore- or mid-ground element. Something to separate it from millions of other sunset snaps.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

And you learned a lot. Keep up the learning, that's what will serve you well in the future. One other thing … practice the techniques that you learn.