4 Shots of Buachaille Etive Mor

[PhotoEcosse]

Ken,

What I said (hopefully sufficiently emphatically) was that you had produced a stunning image.

The question of distortion is only of concern if you are trying to produce an accurate representation of what the eye can see from the camera position.

I am sure we can all remember the grotesquely distorted landscapes that were "in vogue" a few years ago when foregrounds were thrown out of any reasonable perspective by the use of ultra-wide lenses. Any lens of much less than 50mm (or the relevant crop sensor equivalent) will produce a distortion of perspective. Obviously any panoramic stitching will produce an image that exceeds (sometimes by a considerable margin) the field of view of the human eye.

But when photography is considered as an art rather than a science, those things become perfectly legitimate in the pursuit of an interesting image. You have succeeded.

[Wim van Velzen]

I have been there many times and me didn't strike it as distorted (even if it were, you have your creative freedom  ). Main point though is what is believeable and likeable.

If you were working for the Ordnance Survey...

Thinking about that, rectalineair would be distorting anytime, but it only became an issue with the stitching possibilities we have now (leaving fish eye apart).

[KMRennie]

Thanks EVERYONE for the comments, they have all helped. As the weather here in Cumbria is foul, high winds, wet snow and almost no light, I have spent an enjoyable couple of hours relearning stitching, the original now looks to me as though I had used a "Punch" filter. I have also produced a mono image from scratch on the full sized image not the small jpeg I used previously. I use a modified version of contrast grading as I can control it better and will compare it with Silver Efex tomorrow as I often find that revisiting an image later lets me see it with fresh eyes especially with high contrast images like this one. Hope you like it, I do.
Ken