Church of the Good Shepard v2013

[matt34 (Matt)]

Further to my post here I managed to get a bit of time to process this shot.

This is the new improved 2013 version of my nightscape at Lake tekapo and the church of the Good Shepard. After being inspired by Greg's hanging garden image I trialed a horizon to horizon pano year winter which is on flickr After that I realised I could do this and the results could be very nice. I have this printed up at home as a 40*8 inch print I could have got it done 2.5 times as big (100*20inch) but would have nowhere to put it. Anyway it was the one shot I wanted to get of the church on this trip and I'm happy with the result. I would have liked to crop it not as tight on the right but unfortunately its still a learning experience and I'm missing a patch of sky so had to crop it

This is 14 images (with alot of overlap except for one gap) stitched together with Microsoft ICE. Each frame was shot on the Canon 6D 24mm f1.4 lens @ f2.5 for 13 seconds ISO 3200. Some basic NR and RAW correction in Canon DPP then after the stitching white balance, tonal curves & more noise reduction in Lightroom.

This file is tiny with the size restrictions here which has added alot of artifacts and some colour banding but there is a larger version on flickr even that version is a 1/5 of the actual size so I cant wait to get it printed and see it nice and big.

I'm not sure i've got the white balance 100% right or if I could push it more to make the milky way pop or more contrast so the sky is darker. Should I look to try another stitching program to straighen the lake "horizon"

Please let me know what you think, all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Matt

[redomatic (Michael)]

Matt, I love everything except the land at the top.
I regularly do the 360 deg panoramas and "little planets".... and inverted little planets (Here) and I have tried cropping them to a panorama aspect (which is what you have).
I don't like them, but that's only a personal preference - Most people don't like my planets either . I think they just struggle to visualize them (which is harder with the invert and crop).
But don't be disheartened, It's what you like that matters!!

[matt34 (Matt)]

I appreciate the feedback Michael. I did think when doing some of these is where do you stop. I did think that the "sky land" could get cropped out in the future.

[matt34 (Matt)]

After Michaels Suggestion I have redone the pano and removed the land in the sky. I've also done a bit more pushing with the tonal curves, contrast and clarity to make the milky way pop. I'll have to upload a bigger res version soon but here is the small IIS version in the mean time.

Thanks for looking

Matt

[ourkind (Carlos)]

Hey Matt! That's excellent well done!

At the moment I prefer the Land and Sky version better, but I think your original attempt could be improved if you levelled the river and mountains i.e. the top bit. I think it would look good on canvas, you've got lots of foreground light which is beautiful

As for temps you might be able to go cooler but overall it looks great!!

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Great image Matt, inspiring me to try this type of pano. Must look incredible printed out!

[iceman (Mike)]

The lighting on the church is great!

[matt34 (Matt)]

Originally Posted by ourkind

Hey Matt! That's excellent well done!

At the moment I prefer the Land and Sky version better, but I think your original attempt could be improved if you levelled the river and mountains i.e. the top bit. I think it would look good on canvas, you've got lots of foreground light which is beautiful

As for temps you might be able to go cooler but overall it looks great!!

Thanks for the tips Carlos, I have to try and figure out how to straighten the lake/mountain, the stitching software has been wanting to have either the top or bottom on an angle which I think it due to me shooting the shots on an angle (being not wanting to hang around in the cold until the milky way was perfectly overhead)

I'll look at the white balance as well.

Originally Posted by AstroJason

Great image Matt, inspiring me to try this type of pano. Must look incredible printed out!

Good luck Jason, cant wait to see the results.

Originally Posted by iceman

The lighting on the church is great!

Yeah the town lights up the church very nicely, I think the fresh snow helped reflect a lot of light