Posted on 4 Comments

Beach planets

I was flipping through a library book tonight, 52 Weekend Digital Photo Projects, and I found something that made me leave my comfy spot on the couch, grab my computer, and start looking for panoramic landscapes among my photos.

I chose these four images, all from last year. The top two are from Ocean City, the next is Asbury Park, and the last is Ocean Grove:

Beach Planets, at Polka Dot Cottage

And then, I used the directions in the book to turn them into Beach Planets!  I’ve been seeing images like these for ages, but I had no idea they were so (relatively) simple to make. Check them out:

Beach Planets, at Polka Dot Cottage

Beach Planets, at Polka Dot Cottage

Beach Planets, at Polka Dot Cottage

Beach Planets, at Polka Dot Cottage

 

I especially love the last two – interesting architecture combined with a dramatic sky really enhance the effect. The key to this look is Photoshop’s polar coordinates distortion. I found a tutorial on Photojojo, for those of you who might want to give this a try.

This is making me think that the next time we go out of town, I am going to be on the lookout for some good panoramic scenes to shoot. I noticed, while looking for suitable images, that the majority of my vacation pictures are taken at an angle – I take very few head-on shots, apparently.

A row of Victorian homes in Ocean Grove, the boardwalk shops in Ocean City… what else? Oh! Maybe the Catskill mountains on the way to Rhinebeck in the fall? I should see if I have one of those already…

I’m excited by this technique! And now I have one more reason to look forward our annual Ocean City trip. (As if I need another excuse to daydream about the beach in the middle of January!)

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Posted on 4 Comments

4 thoughts on “Beach planets

  1. I want to live on the beach planet, Lisa 😉

  2. How cool is that!!

  3. Awesome!!

  4. My favorites are #1 and #4. Now I want to go shoot some panoramas! Love this.

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