Ghost Ranch Panorama

Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu New Mexico. Nikon D200. Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8. ISO 800. Composite of three images. 1/1000 sec at f/13.Copyright Joanne Mason 2012.

This was shot on the lands of the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. The image is constructed of three images stitched together. By way of some technical background: Three overlapping exposures are taken. (Each exposure was one of a three-exposure bracket to insure options and flexibility in matching the images. Just by chance, all three of the matched images were at the same exposure.) Noise reduction and basic exposure adjustments were done on each image separately. The images were then stitched using Image Composite Editor, an experimental program from Microsoft.  The combined image was then cropped and converted to Black-and-White. At this point, the normal postprocessing steps applied, including adjusting exposure and contrast to a low-key profile. Edges were burned ever so slightly. The sky was enhanced slightly by virtue of the increased contrast, but that’s basically the real sky. The clouds appear to be flowing away from each other near the center because the angle at which the leftmost image was shot is different from the angle at which the rightmost image was shot.