Coastal Beacons - Gary Martin Photography

Panoramic Photos

OK, so what's a panoramic photo you ask? They've been around for a long time. APS cameras have a setting that lets you mask your negative to give you a long, skinny print… that's a panoramic. As defined by the APS gods, it has an aspect ratio of 3:1. Panoramics can be shot horizontally or vertically, as with any photograph. For my purposes, I'm somewhat more arbitrary with the aspect ratio of my panoramic photos. I generate them with my std. 35 mm cameras and scan the images at high digital resolution and then crop them to give me the aspect ratio that I want. Generating a print this way with dimensions up to 10x30, 10x40 or whatever isn't a problem.

The panoramic photo (above) of a sun pillar at South Haven, Michigan shot at sunset on a cold day last January hangs as a 10x30 panoramic print in my office across from my desk.

The horizontal panoramic images on the photo gallery page accessible from the previous screen range from an aspect ratio of about 2.5:1 (that would be a 10x25 image as an example) up to about 6:1 (which would give you a 10x60 print if you printed it).

For vertical panoramic photos, which tall lighthouses are generally well suited to being printed as, there's a separate gallery that you can also access from the previous screen. Personally, although I photograph a lot of lighthouses, for whatever reason, I tend to produce fewer vertical panos that I do horizontals. I also tend to generate somewhat more uniformly sized vertical panoramic images, also for no particularly good reason.

I hope you enjoy my panoramic images. If you have a question about any of them, please feel free to e-mail me using the link on the home page of this gallery .