Notes

1) Two Trees on the Ards Peninsula, Co Down. G5. 2) Glencree Grotto Bridge, Co Wicklow. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. 3) The Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry. EOS 50. Fuji Reala.

4) Slieve Donard, Co Down. EOS 50. Fuji Velvia. Whoever stuck the staff into the cairn at the top of Northern Ireland's highest peak could never have guessed how it would look at first light the following day. Overnight, bitterly cold winds had created this unique ice structure. I used a nearby sunlit rock to meter a mid-tone. Over the years I had struggled to get a quality image to work with and only succeeded when I was able, at last, to very carefully scan the original Velvia slide myself. You probably won't get the very best from your slides and negatives if you depend on someone else to auto-scan them for you. A careful scan can be a slow process.

The sloping horizon is annoying. At the time I was fighting against a biting wind and I was losing the feeling in my fingers, so I don't feel too bad about the tilt!

5) Coastline close to Port, Co Donegal. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. 6) Panama Hat and Berries, France. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. 7) Grandmother's Clock. EOS 620, Ilford HP5. 8) Ramelton, Co Donegal. EOS 50. Fuji Reala.

9) Mamean Gap in the Maum Turk Mountains. G5. 10) Vulbens, France. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. 11) Co Tyrone. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. 12) Port, Co Donegal. EOS 50. Fuji Reala.

13) In the Maum Turk Mountains. EOS 300D. 14) Hare's Gap, Mourne Mountains. EOS 620. Ilford HP5. 15) Airshow. EOS 500. Fuji Superia 100. 16) Street Scene. EOS 500. Converted Fuji Superia 100.

17) Horn Head, Co Donegal. G5. Shooting several images and stitching them together is not difficult, especially if you use an automated process, such as Photoshop Elements' Photomerge. If you’re very careful you can even hand-hold the camera, as with this Horn Head image, created from a series of landscape shots.

It’s best to expose each shot manually to avoid significant tonal variations across the sky (in particular) in the finished panoramic image. It may be necessary to modify each image on the computer so that they blend more smoothly. Consider your white balance setting too if you're shooting with a digital camera. The Auto White Balance setting may read the scene slightly differently as you reposition the camera. These differences will then have to be corrected in software.

The completed image measures 5200x1800 pixels, large enough for a high quality print 20 inches across without resorting to interpolation.

You may find that your digital work results in flat, lacklustre images. In-camera settings could solve some of the problems, but image-editing software has all the tools you need to bring your images to life. Here I used the Tone Curves tool to correct the colour balance and improve the tonal range without stretching the image data too far. The final image has much more impact.

It's tempting to simply adjust the brightness/contrast/intensity of a flat-looking image rather than taking more time to work with Tone Curves or the histogram-assisted Contrast Enhancement, but the quick fix will adversely affect tonal quality across the range—highlight and shadow detail will be damaged.

18) Belfast Shipyard, 1977. Minolta SR-T 101. Kodak film (damaged). 19) Crochet Hands. EOS 500. Fuji Superia 100. 20) Self-portrait. EOS 300D. Converted to B&W and cropped.

21) Church, Dunlewey, Co Donegal. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. Recently a photo magazine featured a selection of panoramic outdoor shots that typically feature in glossy calendars. Technically excellent sweeping landscapes, razor sharp, bursting with colour, they were, er… nice.

I would have to work hard to be as accomplished, no question, but when the weather’s not so good I think images can be much stronger. Clear sunny weather tends to result in landscape shots that lack atmosphere. Just "nice" postcard stuff…

In this shot I just hadn’t the time or footwear to get as close as I needed. But back at the computer I found that a large scan isolating only part of the frame, along with split colour channels, got me a gritty, grainy B&W image that was much more powerful than the original. To the naked eye, and in the colour original, the backdrop of big hills was hard to see through the early mist.

22) Donegal Shore. Olympus mju 700.

23) Forge. Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. EOS 300D. Shaping a traditional iron candle-holder on the anvil. The correct exposure (50th at f4) and software techniques have brightened this scene, but in reality forges need to be very dim to show the colour of hot metal. The hand-held DSLR was set to ISO 1600 and metering was weighted away from the bright window and flames. Unfortunately the sensor was unable to cope with the brightness range, losing useful detail negative film would have captured. On the other hand, a film camera would have needed a tripod and a longer exposure (even with ISO 800 film), or a clever soft flash appproach, or very fast colour film for hand-holding, none of which is a realistic option in a context like this.

24) Turf Spades. EOS 50. Fuji Reala. Processed and aged in software. 25) Bluebells. EOS 5D.

Image-editing software: Corel PHOTO-PAINT (v.9-v.13) .
35mm film scanner: Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400