RE:shooting into the sun

[Joe McCary <mccary@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Jim Dunn" <jim.dunn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> I am about to start shooting a serious of digital outdoor pans, using QTVR
for
> the stitching and Photoshop for retouching the final prints. The prints
are for
> an exhibition in the summer.
> One of the problems I can't resolve satisfactorily is the massive
difference in
> exposure you get from the area the sun is in to the rest of the pan,
anyone got
> any tips, secrets, workarounds they could share with me, to try and get a
> natural looking exposure in this area. I don't want to shoot on cloudy or
> overcast days......

I have faced that problem in the past. The only "work around" I could see
is:
1. Use the best camera lenses possible, multi coated to reduce flair.
2. I used Photo Vista to stitch the images together.  This program had a
more natural look to the images and did not throw some of the images into
darkness.  Also, I would add that before I stitched the images I lightened
the dark side images in Photoshop.  That seemed to help some.  I set the
camera on automatic so it choose the proper exposure.  Some think that
shooting all the same exposure is a good idea, I don't think this.  I find
that when you do that you get near black images on one side and very over
exposed images on the other, not the result I want.

Joe McCary <--- glad to be back on a panorama photo topic!