kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS

After very extensive renovations that lasted 10 years, the "Wonders of Wildlife" aquarium in Springfield, MO reopened in Sept. 2017. This depiction is but one of many incredible presentations of aquatic life.

Since this is a "Pano" section, the details... Oftentimes I will suggest to people that IF they don't have a lens that is 'wide' enough to capture a scene, that they take a series of overlapping shots with the thought that they can stitch them together with any of the good editing programs that are available. In this case, I had a Sigma 17-36mm lens mounted on a Nikon D750...even the 17mm setting on the Full Frame camera was not enough to depict much more than just the tank, which would have left out a lot of the setting and 'feel' of the room. Shooting handheld and in portrait mode, I took about a dozen overlapping photos and now have blended them into this pano. I am very impressed that even though the fish did not hold still during the successive exposures, somehow the software..(Photomerge...in Photoshop) still managed to keep them from being blurry....amazing..! The EXIF data for this...1/30 sec, f5, ISO 1200. I was surprised to find during Post Processing that a White Balance setting of "Shade" gave the most lifelike appearance.

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SnappyHappy Loc: Chapin, SC “The Capitol of Lake Murray”

Wow! Quite an unusual scene. Very nice pano concept...and I agree that your software did an amazing job as well considering 12 frames of moving subjects.

kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS

Thanks for your kind words...and yes, the ability of pano software has come a long ways. When I first started using it...from Photoshop Elements..Rel. 4 (I think)..it was unable to successfully stitch the seams in ceiling and floor tiles correctly. Now it can work with just about any reasonable shots... I never even think about all of the former "rules" about having every setting in manual...(both focus and exposure)....establishing a "nodal point", using a level and tripod....etc… I just use the viewfinder grid lines to try to stay as straight and level as I can....and then let PS do the rest. I normally DO shoot an "insurance" SECOND set of images....keeping "Murphy's Law" in mind...!

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

When I checked the EXIF data it said 1/15 sec. at f/2.8 and ISO of 4000???

kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS

We are both right....and wrong...and isn't that the BEST way...??

When I looked at one of my original images, it had the figures I posted...however...since I did NOT use Manual settings, the values were not identical for all of the 'source' shots....note in my last posting, that I mentioned that... I did not look at what the EXIF for the final shot was....so I think what you saw was what Photoshop Photomerge 'decided' was the correct EXIF...! Also...and I don't think this would matter, but it's something I will keep alert for...is that I shot both jpeg and RAW for this series....(the D750...like many other advanced cameras, can do both simultaneously..) I would think that for each individual image, the EXIF would be identical no matter which format was used...I am not certain how the software carries this through to the end product. Thanks for pointing this out....I'll pay better attention next time....[G]

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Quite an excellent job! And, the fish seem to be swimming in air.

kskarma Loc: Topeka, KS

Thanks for your warm comments....and I was surprised....and very pleased, to see that in the final assembled image, that the fish were in much better focus than I had thought they might be. "Ghosting" is always an issue when you have moving subjects in a Pano...or HDR, for that matter. When I do this sort of "on the fly" pano work, I think I probably shoot one image every couple of seconds...it takes me that long to reorient the camera, make sure it's reasonably level and has a good amount of overlap....not a huge list of things to check, but it's certainly time for a fish...in this case...to move a few feet...but through the 'magic' of current software, it was able to pick out single fish...in the multiple images....and keep them from blurring...what a feat...! I just went back to my original series of shots...found out that there were actually 10 images in this pano...not the dozen I claimed in the first post...and of those 10 images, all or part of the fish tank appears in 7 of the shots...the 3 images on the right only had the other (non-tank) portions of the display.

The display itself is mesmerizing...as you can see from the photo, it's over two stories high, filled with all kinds of marine life and presented with great lighting and many super viewing locations....for me, this room is almost worth the entire admission price..."but wait, there's MORE"...as they say in those infomercials..!