The Hidden Lake

"The Hidden Lake"

The 3:2 ratio of 35mm photography is typically my preferred 'frame' for any given scene, it has a perfect balance in my mind. Once in a while the 3:2 ratio just does not cut it, in these situations I always study the scene to discern how many photographs and at what focal length will be needed to capture the scene as a panorama or gigarama.  

As the case with all panoramas, each photograph in the series should be able to stand on its own to a certain degree, but when combined create something much more. The old story of the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. It was this principle that lead me towards a panoramic approach for Hidden Lake.

This panorama would not have been possible without some very important equipment and thoughtful technique. A nodal rail was used to dodge the problem of parallax which happens when the iris of a lens is not directly inline with the center of rotation. The Canon 11-24L lens was used at 11mm to capture the panoramic sequence, making a perfectly level tripod/camera extremely important to minimize the issues involved with such a wide angle of view. To top it all off, the dynamic range was far too large to capture in a single exposure, so a bracketed set of five exposures one stop apart (-3,-2,-1,0,+1) was triggered for each section of the panorama. 

Canon 6D, Canon 11-24L (@11mm), Really Right Stuff nodal rail, ISO 100, F/10, Three photograph panorama with camera in vertical orientation, bracket of five exposures per section.