Panoramic Images By Colin S Pearson

I use  PanoramaStudio  to blend sequences of overlapping photographs into these large panoramic images. When I have blended and adjusted the multiple photographs to my satisfaction, I then export the finished panorama from PanoramaStudio as a linked set of 'tiled' images, along with the necessary HTML and Javascript components, ready to publish here on my website.
The resulting panorama images are huge, but thanks to the magic of Javascript your browser should allow you to view them at a size and speed that suits you.
Note: After viewing a panorama, please return to this page by clicking your browser's 'Back' button.


975 Singers In One Picture
At The Sing For Water West 2013 / WaterAid.org Charity Event
In Bristol's Amphitheatre On 6th July 2013
This 2013 Sing For Water West event raised over £51,500 for WaterAid!
Panorama Singers preview image, 1024 pixels wide
This panorama can use the 'gyroscope' controls on gyro-equipped mobile devices.
(You may need to press-and-release your finger on your device screen to enable your gyroscope option.)
(And use your browser's 'Back' button to return here.)

On Saturday the 6th of July 2013, a volunteer group of 975 singers from various established choirs around the South West of England, assembled and sang together for the biennial Sing For Water West event in support of the WaterAid charity.

I had the privilege of being a 'volunteer photographer' at the 2013 Sing for Water West performance and the 2009 Sing Your Socks Off event, and along with the few dozen conventional photos that I donated to the organisers on each occasion, I also tried to capture the merry atmosphere in these large panoramic images.
Open Street Maps snippet of Bristol Amphitheatre
In this picture, the 'arc' of the building behind these singers is in fact concave although it appears to be convex!  The reason is that, due to the limited space available in the amphitheatre at this point, I was positioned closer to the middle of the arc than I was to its outer edges (see the little blue 'x' in the amphitheatre map opposite), and hence the singers at the outer limbs of the arc appear (obviously!) smaller Smile! .

To get some stability for the multiple shots for this panorama, I borrowed a stool from one of the drummers in the small, supporting percussion group who were positioned near the 'x' on the map.  I used the stool to support my elbows as I swung the camera progressively from left to right across the arc of the singers (who were in full song at the time). The conductors of the choir were standing on their raised conductors' podium some distance behind me, and the early-arrival spectators were also seated and standing behind me, so I had an uninterrupted line of sight towards the choir.
The event organisers for Sing For Water West 2013 were Ali Orbaum, Pip Morgan and Chris Samuel.
The Choir Masters were Ali Orbaum, Chris Samuel and Wendy Sergeant.
Technical Notes:
  • This blend of 18 images resulted in a panorama 35,300 pixels wide by 2,280 pixels high, spanning a horizontal field of view of  about 200°
  • Panorama Projection: Cylindrical
  • Camera: Nikon D700, hand-held while seated.  Lens: 70-200mm f2.8G Zoom-Nikkor at 87mm
  • Each frame - 1/1000th sec @ F/10, ISO 400.  Elapsed time between first frame and last frame: 90s.
I used three image processing programs to produce this panorama:
  • Before using PanoramaStudio to assemble the panorama, I used  DxO Optics Pro (now called DxO PhotoLab)  to convert the RAW/.NEF camera files into .TIF format images, and also to adjust verticals and to make contrast adjustments on each of the component images.
  • PanoramaStudio then merged the 18 images into this huge panorama, and exported it as a huge, full-quality JPEG image.
  • Finally I used  Nikon Capture Nx2 (sadly discontinued) to "polish" the merged panorama, to tune the colours slightly and to edit-away some minor clutter from the final image.

Sing For Water - Related Links:
  1. Please visit the excellent  Sing For Water West  team who organise these biennial massed choir events in support of WaterAid.
  2. Here's the non-region-specific event page at WaterAid.org for the broader Sing For Water campaign.
  3. Donations to WaterAid are always welcome!  Click on the WaterAid.org logo on the right to learn more about this charity's wonderful work.
  4. Follow this link for more on the Sing Your Socks Off team of highly experienced, harmony singing, workshop leaders.
  5. Here's an Open Street Maps link to the Amphitheatre on Bristol's harbourside where these marvellous singing events were held.
  6. Or here's a Bing Maps satellite view of the same Bristol Amphitheatre on Bing Maps.
Logo - In Support Of WaterAid

The Audience - Seated And Applauding
At The Sing For Water West 2011 / WaterAid.org Charity Event
In Bristol's Amphitheatre - On 9th July 2011
This 2011 Sing For Water West event raised over £50,000 for WaterAid!
Panorama Audience preview image 1024 pixels wide
This panorama can use the 'gyroscope' controls on gyro-equipped mobile devices.
(You might need to press-and-release your finger on your device screen to enable your gyroscope option.)
(After viewing this panorama, please use your browser's 'Back' button to return here.)

Open Street Maps snippet of Bristol AmphitheatreWhen I photographed the cheerful and supportive audience at this wonderful charity event, I was standing on the concrete dais at the 'centre' of the Amphitheatre's arc (see the little 'x' on the amphitheatre map opposite).  I began the sequence of 14 photographs at the left-hand edge of the Lloyds building (the south-western edge) and I rotated myself and my camera clockwise. The exact time of the first 'frame' was at 2:52pm and 49 seconds, and all 14 frames were taken within 40 seconds.

The performing choir is hidden behind the green tent in the middle, sorry!  They had just stopped singing as I traversed the middle of the span, which explains why (when you have zoomed in to see their faces) you will see the audience on the left still engrossed in the choir's performance, while on the right they are smiling and applauding!

Due to the obvious people-movement during this 40-second long sequence of photographs, I needed to correct a few small 'overlap glitches' in the fully-stitched panorama (for example a person with only one arm, another with three eyes, and - in one case - a half-man and half-woman in a ghostly dance!)  I trust that no offence will be caused if I've missed one or more of these hard-to-avoid hiccups! Smile!

Technical Notes:
  • This blend of 14 images is 25,939 pixels wide by 2,586 pixels high, and it spans a horizontal field of view of about 165°
  • Panorama Projection: Cylindrical
  • Camera:  Nikon D700.  Hand-held. 1/500th sec @ F/8, ISO 400.

The View From Tog Hill Picnic Site - At 1:15pm On 28th August 2005
Panorama Tog Hill preview photo, 1024 pixels wide
Click this preview image to see the full-sized 'Tog Hill' panorama

Disclaimer: I visited this lovely picnic site with my young family many times and for many years before it gained its current reputation as a venue for things other than lovely quiet picnics and inspiring vistas!  Sadly, a Google search for "Tog Hill Picnic Site" will instantly reveal what those family-unfriendly "attractions" now are.  Nevertheless, on a good day and in broad daylight, I can still recommend this as a wonderful site for some glorious panoramic views of our English countryside!

This was my first attempt at taking a 'real' panorama, using my first digital camera, the superb 8-Megapixel Konica Minolta A2.  Although I have owned a sturdy tripod for almost 30 years, I didn't use it for these photos!  Instead I relied on the very capable "Image Stabilisation" in the A2 camera to give me these rock-steady photographs. And with the help of that broad and straight horizon it was easy for me to keep the images aligned vertically from frame to frame.  Any remaining 'tilt' or mis-alignment between the frames was quickly corrected by the excellent Panorama Studio photo-stitching program.

I took these photographs in the A2 camera's RAW mode, so I had a lot of flexibility in correcting the colours and contrast etc. before feeding the images into PanoramaStudio, but I was disappointed that the Konica Minolta RAW processing program - called "DiMAGE Viewer" - was not able to recover some of the blown-out highlights in the occasional bright-white walls and rooftops on just a few of the buildings. (You'll need to zoom-in close to see these few minor flaws! Smile! )

The hills in the extreme distance of this panorama are the beautiful Welsh hills that lie to the North of Cardiff and to the North West of the town of Newport. Near to the centre of the panorama we can see the white structures of both of the bridges that span the River Severn as it flows South West into the Bristol Channel.  The most recently-built of these bridges is the one on the left (or to the South of the picture). This is a cable-stayed bridge, known as the Second Severn Crossing.  The original bridge (on the right) is a suspension bridge, and we still call it by its old familiar name, the Severn Bridge. (See the Wikipedia links below).
Technical Notes:
  • This blend of 12 images is 23,425 pixels wide by 2,266 pixels high, and it spans a horizontal field of view of about 202°
  • Panorama Projection: Cylindrical
  • Camera:  Konica Minolta A2. Hand-held. 1/60th sec @ F/5.6, ISO 64
Tog Hill Panorama - Related Links:
  1. The Severn Bridge as it's described on Wikipedia.
  2. The Wikipedia page on the Second Severn Crossing.
  3. A Bing Maps link to the Tog Hill picnic spot from where I took this series of photographs in 2005.


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These panoramic images and their component photographs are copyright ©2005-2020, Colin S Pearson. All rights reserved.
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Panoramic Images by  Colin S Pearson  are licensed
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Page updated on 
25th January 2020