Ghost Ranch Pano - Need Input

[Dave Pluimer]

Looking for some critique, here. This is a 5-shot (handheld) pano taken at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, New Mexico last fall. Crop ratio is 1x2. Specifically, would like input on:

-sky - I was not using a polarizer of any kind this day. I did add a very slight vignette to darken the corners a bit so that it would blend more with the center.

-horizon below the mesas - when I look at it, I get the sense of some unevenness/lens distortion. I enabled lens profile correction in LR4 before creating the pano in CS6. Then, I did some additional adjustments (mainly distortion correction) in the Adaptive Wide Angle filter and a few manual adjustments.

Any other input or critiques are very welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I think you need some feature separation in the chaotic foreground.
The bushes melt together and you end up in a chaotic "too many features" problem.
I edited the image to get some stronger separation here, though its surely not finished.
Basically I played with unsharp mask at a high radius and did some local dodging and burning.

The sky you might just crop away a bit and make it even more panoramic

Cheers
~Chris

[Jeremy Roussak]

The sky you might just crop away a bit and make it even more panoramic

I don't think that helps, Chris: it now looks cramped at the top.

Jeremy

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I don't think that helps, Chris: it now looks cramped at the top.

Jeremy

Yep - i think I overdid it - I didn't want to cut the clouds.
Looking at my crop on the screen though it doesn't look too bad.

[Richowens]

A quick trp to Photoshop and warp to remove the swayback.

Rich
 

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

A quick trp to Photoshop and warp to remove the swayback.

Rich
 

I've never yet bothered with warp, but for this one I think it does improve it.

[Dave Pluimer]

What did I want to show? If I think back to where I was, it was all of it. The clouds came in late. The lighter bush on the left was out of the ordinary. I think what I'm picking up on is I'm trying to do too much (or, not enough of the right thing).

I appreciate the perspectives and feedback.

[sdwilsonsct]

I've never yet bothered with warp, but for this one I think it does improve it.

After repeated prodding from commenters here, I have started doing this with most of my prairie landscapes, almost always to good effect.

It's a fine image, Dave. I also like Christoph's edits.

[PeterAit]

I do see some "distortion" - the horizon - not really a horizon but the horizontal boundary between the scrub and the cliff - is curved. Maybe it was actually that way, but it does not look right to me. I also find he bushes in the foreground to be sort of uninteresting. Although the near/far composition can be effective, I just don't think it works here.

[alainbriot]

Warp + convert to black and white

[bill proud]

Hello,

Not much you can do with this featureless southwestern sky except wait for another day.

The foreground is also not too significant save the bush on the left, which you might have moved closer to and used it as a foreground anchor to the overall scene. I would cut off most of what is right of the butte, which you could get by enlarging the image somewhat.

Best,

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I think Alain did the right step to boldly use the warp.
I applied it to my edit (my first warp ever, actually - just learned about it here in this thread)
and here is the result: