Waterrock Knob
by Jason Niehoff
(Cullowhee, NC)
I was trying to capture the beauty of the view from the mountain. I don't know if this does it justice though. (For convenience, all links below open in new windows)This is one of those classic moments for photographers.
You have just hiked a few miles, haven't taken a shot for ages, and reach a viewpoint. Time to get snapping!
Besides, after all that effort, it stands to reason you'll want to record the occasion!
But no matter what you do the picture you take just doesn't reflect the effort that went into taking it.
Jason's photo is ok. It’s nice enough. But I can't help feeling that there is more that could be done with this scenery.
The first thing to try is a panorama.
When we look at views like this our eyes naturally go from left to right. Nobody climbs a mountain, reaches the top and then looks up and down. You look left and right.
The problem is that when we take photos they are a bit too 'square'. A better approach is to take a panorama – a wide photo.
There are two ways to do this. The first is to simply crop your original photo so that it is panoramic. This has the problem that you don’t really get any more of that fantastic scene into your photo, you are in fact chopping bits out.
The second way is to take a series of overlapping images, and then stitch them together using software.
This has the benefit that you get much more of the scenery into your photo. Panoramas featured in a recent newsletter. Click to read more about panoramas.
The other thing to try here would be a 3D stereoscopic photo. With a little practice almost everyone can view 3D stereoscopic images, and once you see the effect you will be blown away!
They are easy to set up. All you have to do at the time you take your picture is remember to take two photos, each one a short distance apart (one as if it is taken through the left eye, and the other through the right eye).
In Jason's photo, because of the distance from the front to back of the picture, I would suggest a separation from the right and left photos of about 20 feet. Click to read more about 3D stereoscopic photography, also have a look at this 3D stereoscopic 'trainer' image to show you how to view these images.
All in all, this is a nice enough photo, and I hope these tips are helpful.
Thanks Jason for the submission,
Ed.
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