White Rim Sunrise + repost

Not the best light due to variable cloud cover in the east, but I did manage to get just one series of shots where the sun peaked through just enough to illuminate the bluffs. Great time to be in Canyonlands with so very few people!

This image is a three image horizontal stitch, with some exposure blending as well. Still have not come close to mastering panos. Could have sworn I had the tripod head and camera level, yet I was not able to stitch the 3 images together without losing some parts of the pano. Next time I'll do vertical stitches to provide some leeway for cropping.

Nice one Ken.

Really unique perspective!

Nice scene Ken. I like the far butte on the right with its red glow against the purplish sky. About 1/3 in from the right seems to be a small ridge glowing too red to vibrantly. I like the white rim and all the spires beneath. I have not gotten the hang of a level pano either. I do not have a leveling head, so have to use the bubble placed at various locations on the tripod collar to get as close as possible, and then pan the camera and look at the grid in the viewfinder for problems.

Hi Ken, glad to see you adventuring into the pano world. I think what distracts my eye here is the comp. I cant decide if the scene is weighted to the left, or right. I'm left wanting alot more to the left and less of whats on the right, and certainly a bit more below. Another problem you will encounter with panos, especially a low light pano like this one, is matching up exposures. It appears there may be a shift in exposure in the sky just to the left of the lit up butte on right. At some point we need to hook up for a photo shoot, and we can get into the pano conversation!

Thanks for the responses! Kane, yea, with the problem I had in taking the images for a good stitch, I lost enough of the image to restrict my desired comp. So, the attached comp may be a better one, but it all depends I suppose on who is viewing it. I do agree the original is overpowered by the bright cliff faces. For the sky, the clouds my be somewhat responsible for the exposure. But looking at the originals, it looked like the exposure was matched well. I do believe the sky could be lighten a bit which I also did on the attachment.
Doug, believe it or not, I didn't add any saturation. The richness of the colors is the result of many curves and/or levels adjustments. I did tone it down a bit.
I am still confused why the pano didn't turn out as designed. Between my tripod head level and checking the viewfinder horizontal grid line, I should have been ok. Next time I will be more cautious and shoot verticals. At least then I would have more image to crop, if needed.

I think I prefer the original post with more of the cliff faces on the right. The red areas appear a little too saturated, maybe just tones those down a bit. Nice work Ken!

Of those two options, I'd also take the first. The light on the cliffs and the shale at their base provides the most interest for me.

Obviously something wasn't level. Before making the pano sequence, did you check if the camera remained level when panned to the far left and then the far right? Were you using a ball head with a panning base? If so, do you have a bubble level to check if the panning base / top of tripod is level ?

Bill, yea I am still confused as well, Yes, I use Acratech leveling base and have a Nikon which have on board camera leveling. So, I was watching the camera level as I swung the camera. Apparently, the tripod must have moved, upsetting the tripod head level. But I checked that after each series of shots. No doubt I will be testing this setup again. I will say I rarely stitch more than two images, so something wasn't in sync. Think I should stick to macro since I have that figured out