Yesterday, I was wondering what image to share in today’s blog post. At the time I was rewriting an old tutorial for my website on stitching panoramas in Lightroom. This got me thinking about publishing a YouTube video on the subject (which I’m now working on).
As part of developing the video idea, I began trawling through my archive of panoramic images I had shot, many of which I had yet to bother stitching. That’s when I came across a large batch from 2019 when I had a week’s trip to the Scottish Highlands with fellow photographer Steve O’Nions. Here’s just one of the images which I can hardly believe I’ve been ignoring.
When I shot this, we had been over near the Summer Isles shooting the mountains at dawn. Thinking the sunrise was over, we headed back towards Ullapool but then noticed this view in the distance. Having driven around the area for several days, we knew we could take a lane up to a viewpoint where we would be able to see more clearly. That’s where I shot this.
It’s three frames taken with the Fuji XT3 using the Fuji 55-200 lens at 128mm. I had the camera mounted on a tripod as the exposure was 1/20” at ISO160 and f/11.0. I didn’t use any filters which is why the foreground is so dark. Instead, I exposed for the sky to emphasise the wonderful colours, which is what I think this scene is all about.
The three images were captured in RAW format and were stitched using the Lightroom Photo Merge to Panorama feature. The resulting image is around 40” x 19” at 300dpi which should be plenty for most uses. It’s also required very little processing.
I hope you like it and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Lovely layers
Thank you
Ah, “Magenta”, the most elusive of colors! Just one question, however, regarding that tiny sliver of lake water at the lower left? At first, I thought it might be a distraction, but then, the idea of the lake being there is verified by this fact. I suppose it comes down to documentation vs. artistic license. Any thoughts or is that too much “nit picking”? Beautiful image and proof of APSC delivering the goods!
I did wonder about the lake myself but after looking at the image with and without it I prefer to keep it. I like the way that it seems to be peeping out from behind the hills whilst the sun is doing the same from behind a cloud. It also provides another point at the opposite end of the frame to the sun. You find the two fight for your attention and I quite like that. It may create too much tension for some people but I’m happy.
That makes perfect sense as some might question the position of the sun in the frame, but that is solved with the lake absorbing all that sunlight!