Digital Panoramas

Since I got my small, rugged, take-anywhere Lumix FT1 for my honeymoon (easier to stash than a DSLR, cheaper and far more portable in places I plan to go in the future), I have latched on to the panorama assist function. I find the most beautiful scenes that I can, which won't fit into one frame and I turn them into many, using the handy little automated grid on my camera screen.

I then take them home and plug them into Hugin and let the magic begin. I let a program do most of the work, aligning the images and matching the exposure/colours. I then set to work in Photoshop for some fine tuning-- a bit of cropping, burning, dodging and some trusty level adjustment. And once that is done, this is what I've come up with so far:

Auckland from Mt. Eden, New Zealand

Uluru at sunrise, Northern Territory

Kings Canyon, Northern Territory

Mt. Connor, Northern Territory

Alice Springs from ANZAC Hill, Northern Territory

It's a bit of a start. I have a few more to do. I confess that I mostly discovered the tool when I went to the Northern Territories with my husband and older brother (best trip ever...would do it again with them in a heartbeat). I look forward to finding the right weather to photograph Melbourne from Southbank and Elwood Beach. I also have every intention of taking a million photos from Freycinet National Park in Tasmania this Christmas. And any other adventure that comes my way soon.

Now, to figure out how to print these things....