First Edits:
All of the raw files that go into one panorama need to have the same edit in order for the stitch to look consistent. With a single row panorama like this, I select the 'centre' (focal centre) of the image and start with a basic middle exposure, in which the ground and sky look okay. I then use a graduated filter edit for the ground and another for the sky. This is only thing that changes between pictures, and the only thing I change about them is the position of the gradient (to make sure they both meet at the horizon). For example, below you can see two images in which the horizon is in a different place, therefore I had to move the position of the filters, but not any of the settings.
The two white dots with a line between show the distance over which the filter effects fall off (i.e. graduation).
To stitch the images together open all of them required ones in Photoshop. Go to: file > automate > photomerge. Then select 'add open files' and personally, I like to keep it on auto mode and select 'blend images together'. Then start it and photoshop should give you a very well stitched panorama. Anything past CS3 seems to stitch very accurately, before that version and you could be pushing it.
Exposure 1:
Metadata: F/16 - 1/10th - ISO100
Photoshop had some trouble stitching the panorama together and so I had to make two and then combine those two into one final, full length panorama.
Exposure 2:
Metadata: F/16 - 1/60th - ISO100
Here is that lower exposure. I didn't need to make this panorama the full length, as it was only the area around the sun that needed correcting. There isn't much to say about this part of the edit.
Blending:
Now comes the trickiest part, and that is to match the two exposure together. I have broken it down into a couple of steps.
First of all I copied the darker image onto the lighter one and added a layer mask. I gradient tools to blend the sky down to the horizon, however I must have jogged the camera slightly as the two didn't quite line up. This meant that where the two images overlapped on the field to the top right of the image, it looked fuzzy. This took some time to get around but using a paint brush and my graphics tablet I eventually got it to look natural. As this darker panorama wasn't as wide as the lighter one I had to blend the left hand edge in. This took another gradient.
Here is the final image! I hoped that you like this blog post and I would love to know if you think I should carry on with this type of blogging (i.e. more tutorial based). I have another image which I would like to make a post about, it is of the North Cliffs and you can see it in the landscapes gallery.
Thanks for any likes, comments and shares, it's much appreciated!