castlerigg stone circle

castlerigg stone circle, originally uploaded by jamesburden.

So I’ve not been posting any photos for nine days. I haven’t stopped doing photography though ;-)

Here’s another one of my long gestation panoramas. This is Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick in Cumbria. The circle was probably constructed around 3200BC making it one of the earliest stone circles in Britain, and possi...ble Europe too. From within the circle you can see some of the highest peaks in Cumbria including Skiddaw and Helvellyn. The heaviest stone weighs around 16 tons.

Panoramas provide an interesting angle on the SOOC (straight out of the camera) debate. This is most definitely not straight out of the camera. I had to make adjustments to the exposure and colour temperature to ensure that they could be effectively stitched together. I then had to stitch and then clone out various rain spots on the lens (it was pelting it down with rain when I took this series of shots).

What is more valid? Straight out of the camera with the arbitrary limitations of 2:3 ratio and leaving the rendition of light and tones to a computer in the camera? Or making the most of a computer outside the camera to create something that actually more faithfully represents capturing that moment?