It is now fairly common for DSLR photographers to produce very large images by combining (or “stitching”) multiple separate component exposures of a scene. With the right kind of subject (one that is fairly static) and careful technique this can be quite successful.

I’ve experimented in the past with stitched photographs. I’ve had some luck with hand aligning and masking individual photos, and I’ve played around with some third-party software designed for this task. I was pleased to find that a very competent stitching feature is now part of the newest CS3 version of Photoshop.

As an example of what you can do with this tool, I’ve uploaded a photograph I created earlier this summer. Shot at dawn at Thousand Island Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area, the photograph consists of five 12MP images. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.