Took a trip downtown in between rain showers tonight. When I say it that way it sounds kind of impressive – downtown, like the Sinatra song or something. But I’m not going to knock Scranton, which actually has a really nice downtown that the city has worked hard to clean up and make successful.
Click for a larger version
The courthouse square is especially nice and I’ve long wanted to get a nice shot of it. I’ve tried a few times without ever really capturing the look I wanted. Tonight the elements came together; maybe it was the gloomy blue sky, or the fresh wash of rain, but whatever the reason, it looked great.This is a photomerge composed of six images, shot handheld with the Powershot SX120. The perspective is a little off, despite using the “Perspective” option during the merge, followed by a manual adjustment with the transform tool. It would probably take a tilt-shift lens to completely overcome it, but it’s not too bad overall.
I shot these in Av mode, f/2.8, ISO 400, handheld with shutter speeds down around 1/10 (thank goodness for IS). As usually happens when I’m shooting the P&S, my brain stopped working – the results would have been more consistent in M, but despite that oversight, it worked out.
I’ve found that I enjoy panoramas/photomerges, but I lack the patience to work with a tripod and nodal point gear, which means that I shoot most of them handheld. I try to keep the top and bottom of each frame in line, with a 30% overlap between frames. It usually works out well.
Brent Pennington is a professional photographer and the driving force behind The Roving Photographer. When he’s not working with commercial or portraiture clients, he’s usually out in the field pursuing nature and wildlife shots.
It’s really nice. I want to see a full moon with a witch in front of it. It has a rather Halloween look to it, to me anyway!