I Entered and I Lost – Epson Panorama Photo Contest

April 6, 2022 By Kevin Raber

Epson Pano Awards

The Palouse. Simple easy composition makes this a stand-out image. Sony a7iv 6 image stitch — The Palouse. The simple easy composition makes this a stand-out image. Sony a7iv 6 image stitch

A few months ago I was having a chat with Jeff Schewe and he mentioned he was working on images to enter into the yearly Epson Pano awards. You may have heard us discussing this in one of our Print It videos. I love doing panos and I find myself shooting panoramas a lot.

The definition of Panorama photography is best described on the Wiki Site. Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio, like the familiar letterbox format in wide-screen video.

I have a huge collection of pano images. Somewhere on my print files, I have a 44 inch by 28-foot pano made from a Phase One camera. The only place big enough to see it is in the hallway of my studio’s building. It’s pretty phenomenal as you can walk the length of the print and bend down real close and see amazing detail.

The Carmel, IN Performing Arts Center. 23mm lens - one shot. Detail must be seen to be appreciated fully. — The Carmel, IN Performing Arts Center. 23mm lens – one shot. Detail must be seen to be appreciated fully

The rules for a pano and entry were pretty easy to follow. I suggest if you are interested you check them out HERE. Essentially, they are looking for a minimum 2:1 ratio long side to the short side. Images can be stitched or cropped to these minimum specs.

The images I entered, which can be viewed below, were a combination of stitched images or cropped. I have several pano crop ratios saved in the cropping tool of Capture One and Photoshop. I shoot most of the images I make on high megapixel cameras. Many were made on a Phase One camera like the interior of the concert hall above. Others were made by stitching files from my Sony camera, usually an a7r iii or a7r iv.

For stitched images, I mainly used Photoshop. I also when needed and more and more lately I use PTgui. Lately, though, I have been finding the stitching feature in Capture One worth trying. I like this because it stitches from RAW files and then presents a DNG file that can be treated as a RAW file using all the Capture One tools. There are a few issues in Capture One that need to be refined, but it is a real blessing to work with stitched images in RAW format.

I will in a future article look at the Photoshop, PTgui, and Capture One methods for stitching. Stitching is also useful when you need a wide-angle image, but just don’t have the lens. There is a photo below made in the Dolomites that was made with 38 images in multiple rows. The files size and detail are amazing.

Don’t forget if you are a Silver or Gold member you can click on an image to see it larger

38 image 3 row stitch in the Dolomites. Sony a7r iii with 24-70mm. I was pretty clost. A 16mm lens would not have shown the whole image. That is what sometimes you need to do an image stict so you can show everything — 38 image 3-row stitch in the Dolomites. Sony a7r iii with 24-70mm. I was pretty close. A 16mm lens would not have shown the whole image. That is what sometimes you need to do an image stitch so you can show everything.

I’d like to encourage you if you haven’t tried to do panos to give it a shot. There are many articles on the internet about how to do them and some make it very complicated by talking about nodal points and such. Don’t get in a tizzy about all that. Simply go out and shoot images (usually in vertical) orientation and overlap the images by about 20-30%. Then try stitching in Capture One or output your images to JPEG or TIFF and then open them in Photoshop and then do a File > Automate > Photomerge. Follow the prompts and select OK.

As I said, I’ll do a more detailed look at doing panos, but it’s not that hard.

For now, please enjoy my entries in last year’s competition shown below. I didn’t win a thing, and it cost a few hundred dollars to enter. But you just have to accept the results. I was happy with my images and I will certainly try again. I probably overdid the number of entries but I trimmed these entries down from over a hundred possibilities. That was the hard part.

Please Enjoy. I put some details in the captions.

My Entries

Moonrise in Iceland, Phase One 100mp camera

The Classic church in Dolomites, single cropped exposure — The Classic church in the Dolomites, single cropped exposure

I'd live here, the Dolomites, Phase One camera 3 exposure stitch. — I’d live here, the Dolomites, Phase One camera 3 exposure stitch.

Vertical pano. 4 image stitch. Panos don't always have to be horizontal. — Vertical pano. 4 image stitch. Panos don’t always have to be horizontal.

Iceland pano 3 images, Phase One camera.

Iceberg in Greenland, single exposure Sony a7r iii

Somewhere in the southwest, single exposure.

Six image stitch, Oil Refinery, New Orleans

The Trump Tower, vertical pano, perspective correction software

Penguin Colony, Antarctica, 3 shot Horizontal stitch

Devils Castle sunrise, Greenland, single image pano

Iceland, Iceberg beach, single exposure pano

One of my favorite locations in the day, Dolomites, 4 exposure stitch

My favorite location, sunset with moonrise, 4 exposure stitch., Phase One camera

Arches NP, 6 image stitch, Phase One camera

The ride home, dust trail, Palouse, 400mm lens in the Palouse

Extreme pano, a village in the Dolomites, 8 image stitch, Phase One camera.

These are the coolest waterfalls in Iceland. 6 Image pano

Sunrise - Sunset, Iceland, Single exposure pano — Sunrise – Sunset, Iceland, Single exposure pano

Geo-Thermal Fields, Iceland, Single exposure

Another view of Iceland moonrise — Another view of Iceland’s moonrise

28 Image stitch from a moving ship in Lemaire Channel, Antarctica. You can see both ends of the channel. I'm pretty proud of this one. — 28 Image stitch from a moving ship in Lemaire Channel, Antarctica. You can see both ends of the channel. I’m pretty proud of this one.

Penguin colony, Port Lockerby, Antarctica, single image pano

The harvest in the Palouse, single image

Kevin Raber
April 2022

Kevin Raber
Indianapolis, IN

Photography is my passion and has been for5 0 plus years. My career in photography has allowed me to travel the world, meet some of the most interesting people on the planet and see things I could never have dreamed of. My goal is to share the passion of picture taking through photographs and teaching with as many people as I can, hoping it brings them as much joy and happiness as it has me. I do this through photoPXL.com, this site, as well as Rockhopper Workshops, and other projects, as well as teaching as Artist In Residence at the Indianapolis Art Center.

Tagged With: Kevin Raber, panorama, Epson Panorama Awards, Panos

Article Type: Columns, MISC

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