The light bouncing around Mesa Arch at sunrise is unbelievable. The underside of the arch looks like hot coals. I shot this panoramic image in 2007. Then I was not able to control the dynamic range. The sky would blow out and the shadows were too dark.
I recently got a request for a large 24x72 of Mesa Arch, so I went back to the originals using Lightroom 4 Beta. Now I can control the highlights and shadows to my satisfaction. I also used lens correction to correct for any distortion. I shot this pano with camera in the vertical (portrait) position. (12 shots stitched - it's actually extends past both left and right frame.) This gave me the resolution needed to make a big print.
I went this last fall to Mesa Arch but it was too crowded to shoot. I'm glad I was able to go back in time and enjoy this shot all over again.
For more info see: Photographing Mesa Arch - you'll notice the pano there was shot well after sunrise when there was more ambient light on the arch.
